Therapy for Clients with Personality Disorders: Antisocial Personality Disorder-Nursing Paper Examples

Therapy for Clients with Personality Disorders

The DSM-5-TR describes personality disorders as long-term behavioral patterns and experiences significantly different from what is expected of an average person (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). According to Paris (2015), personality disorders are generally caused by environmental and genetic factors. Hence, significantly varying depending on their manifestation. This paper describes the treatment of clients with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) using psychotherapy (Clients with Personality Disorders).

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

ASPD remains characterized by irresponsible, impulsive, and criminal behaviors (Wheeler, 2020). Concerning the explanations by the American Psychiatric Association (2022), people with ASPD often have reckless, manipulative, and deceitful behaviors and are not concerned about others’ feelings (Clients with Personality Disorders).

Similar to the other types of personality disorders, ASPD is on a spectrum, meaning that its severity can range from occasional destructive behaviors to recurrent committing of serious crimes (DeLisi et al., 2019). As Paris (2015) reported, the DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria for ASPD include reckless disregard for one’s safety and that of others, inability to sustain consistent work behaviors, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse.

Furthermore, Azevedo et al. (2020) and Wheeler (2020) have established that people with ASPD often act impulsively or fail to plan, being aggressive and easily provoked. In this case, ASPD adversely affects a person’s social life by causing problems in relationships, school, or work and may lead to social isolation in the long term. In line with Azevedo et al. (2020) and Bateman (2022), health practitioners should compassionately and calmly talk with ASPD clients during the psychotherapy session to effectively understand the feelings and thoughts of their clients caused by ASPD.

Therapeutic Approach and Modality

Selecting the most effective therapeutic approach for treating people with ASPD is essential for improved quality of life. In the context of this case study, psychotherapy (talk therapy) will be used for treating people with ASPD. Concerning the explanations by DeLisi et al. (2019), psychotherapy aims explicitly at people with ASPD to identify and modify their troubling thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behaviors (Clients with Personality Disorders).

Adopting psychotherapy will allow for the effective management of anger and violent behaviors and the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse problems common among people with ASPD. Specifically, talk therapy is appropriate when treating clients with ASPD because it enables the nurse to better understand their emotions, correctly identify key challenges to optimal mental health, and allow them to cope with stress easily (Clients with Personality Disorders).

Therapeutic Relationship in Psychiatry

A positive therapeutic relationship between nurses and their clients helps realize improved quality of life among the health clients. When managing and treating clients with personality disorders, there is a need to develop a strong therapeutic relationship for improved health outcomes (Bateman, 2022; Paris, 2015) (Clients with Personality Disorders).

Therefore, I will share with the client information about the diagnosis to be undertaken, including the name personality disorder they are experiencing, its symptoms, and the most effective treatment options for their health problem. This approach will be appropriate in an individual session. However, I will not share more personal information about the client in a family or group session without the client’s consent. Some details, such as the nature of their mental health should be confidential and only shared with the client (Clients with Personality Disorders) .

Conclusion

ASPD is a personality disorder that interferes with the affected individuals’ behavioral patterns. Psychotherapy, specifically talk therapy, is a highly effective therapeutic approach for treating people with ASPD as it allows practitioners to comprehensively understand their clients’ emotions and thoughts about this disorder. Through talk therapy, I will teach the client with ASPD about the most appropriate ways of coping with distress and emotional breakdowns associated with this type of personality disorder. All of the sources included in this analysis are scholarly, as they have been written and reviewed by scholars and experts in the nursing field.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (5th ed., text rev.). https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?

Azevedo, J., Vieira-Coelho, M., Castelo-Branco, M., Coelho, R., & Figueiredo-Braga, M. (2020). Impulsive and premeditated aggression in male offenders with antisocial personality disorder. Plos one, 15(3), 1-18.

Bateman, A. W. (2022). Mentalizing and group psychotherapy: a novel treatment for antisocial personality disorder. American journal of psychotherapy, 75(1), 32-37.

DeLisi, M., Drury, A. J., & Elbert, M. J. (2019). The etiology of antisocial personality disorder: The differential roles of adverse childhood experiences and childhood psychopathology. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 92, 1-6.

Paris, J. (2015). A concise guide to personality disorders. American Psychological Association, pp. 119–135. 

Wheeler, K. (Ed.). (2020). Psychotherapy for the advanced practice psychiatric nurse: A how-to guide for evidence-based practice (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing.