Original articleTwo models of impulsivity: relationship to personality traits and psychopathology
Introduction
Impulsivity is a component of the initiation of behavior Barratt and Patton 1983, Evenden 1999a. It appears to be a basic part of disruptive behavior disorders (Dougherty et al 2000), substance abuse (Allen et al 1998), personality disorders (Mulder et al 1999), aggression (Barratt et al 1999), bipolar disorder (Swann et al 2001), suicide (Corruble et al 1999), and other potentially destructive behavioral problems (Brady et al 1998). Rigorous definitions have been elusive: impulsivity can be a component of any motivated behavior, and it can have multiple expressions, including neurophysiology, laboratory performance, and action (Barratt and Patton 1983).
Research on impulsivity has generally relied on self-report, or on measurements or observations of behavior whose impulsivity was open to interpretation Barratt and Patton 1983, Johnson et al 1998. These measures have yielded valuable information about impulsivity as a stable trait in individuals with a wide range of behavioral disturbances (Barratt and Patton 1983). They do not, however, lend themselves well to pharmacologic or physiologic studies of impulsivity, because they are subjective, they measure a relatively stable characteristic, and they cannot be related directly to biological models of impulsivity based on animal studies.
Laboratory measures of impulsivity have been developed in an effort to overcome these problems. These measures are based on two animal models of impulsivity: inability to delay reward, leading to an increased tendency to choose immediate small rewards over larger delayed ones (Monterosso and Aimslie 1999); and inability to conform responses to environmental context, leading to errors of commission on tests that required careful checking of stimuli (Evenden 1999b). There is little information, however, relating measures of these models of impulsivity to each other or to established personality measures.
We have compared the two dominant models of laboratory impulsivity in parents of subjects and control subjects who participated in an investigation of disruptive behavior disorders. Impulsivity as a stable personality trait was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) total and subscale scores (Patton et al 1995). Rapid-response impulsivity was measured using the Immediate Memory-Delayed Memory Task (IMT/DMT), a version of the Continuous Performance Test that has been used successfully in studies of individuals at risk for severely impulsive behavior (Dougherty 1999). Reward-delay impulsivity was measured by the Two-Choice Test (Cherek and Lane 1999) and the Single Key Impulsivity Paradigm (Dougherty et al, manuscript in review), both of which measure the tendency to choose small immediate rewards over larger delayed ones. Our hypothesis was that rapid-response impulsivity would be more strongly related to human psychopathology, as reflected by 1) stronger relationship to presence of a psychiatric diagnosis; 2) stronger relationship to BIS scores; and 3) stronger relationship to overall personality disturbance as reflected by Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II) responses.
Section snippets
Subjects
Each subject was a biological parent of a participant (patient or matched control subject) in a study of adolescent inpatients with disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) including oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty-two (19 women and 3 men, mean age 43 years, range 34–55 years) were parents of control subjects, and 10 (8 women and 2 men, mean age 39.7, range 32–47) were parents of subjects with DBDs. The groups did not
Rapid-response
Table 1 shows that total and nonplanning BIS scores correlated significantly with commission error rates on both the IMT and DMT. The pattern of correlations was strongest for BIS nonplanning scores. Although correlations did not reach significance in parents of subjects with DBDs, owing to the small number, the regression was essentially identical for the two groups, as shown in Figure 1.
Reward-delay
SKIP. In the SKIP, the total number of free-operant reward-directed responses correlated significantly
Discussion
Commission errors on the IMT/DMT, a potential measure of rapid-response impulsivity, (Halperin et al 1991), correlated with Barratt Impulsiveness Scale scores. Reward-delay measures did not correlate as strongly with BIS scores and did not contribute significantly to a multiple regression model. IMT/DMT performance was also more strongly related to the presence of an Axis I or Axis II diagnosis and to overall personality disturbance as reflected by SCID-II results. These data suggest that the
Acknowledgements
Supported by the Pat R. Rutherford, Jr. Chair in Psychiatry (ACS) and AA 12046 (DMD).
References (28)
- et al.
Impulsivity and history of drug dependence
Drug Alcohol Depend
(1998) - et al.
Impulsive and premeditated aggressionA factor analysis of self- reported acts
Psychiatry Res
(1999) - et al.
Studies of violent and nonviolent male paroleesII. Laboratory and psychometric measurements of impulsivity
Biol Psychiatry
(1997) - et al.
Studies of violent and nonviolent male paroleesII. Laboratory and psychometric measurements of impulsivity
Biol Psychiatry
(1997) - et al.
ImpulsivityA relevant dimension in depression regarding suicide attempts?
J Affect Disord
(1999) - et al.
Laboratory measures of aggression and impulsivity in women with borderline personality disorder
Psychiatry Res
(1999) - et al.
Effects of acute intravenous cocaine on cardiovascular function, human learning, and performance in cocaine addicts
Psychiatry Res
(1998) - et al.
Measurement of interepisode impulsivity in bipolar disorderPreliminary report
Psychiatry Res
(2001) - et al.
ImpulsivityCognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological correlates
- et al.
Serotonin and tolerance to delay of reward in rats
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
(1999)
The relationship between substance use disorders, impulse control disorders, and pathological aggression
Am J Addict
Comparison among various methods of assessment of impulsiveness
Percept Mot Skills
Effects of d, l-fenfluarmine on aggressive and impulsive responding in adult males with a history of conduct disorder
Psychopharmacol
IMT/DMT Immediate Memory Task & Delayed Memory TaskA Research Tool for Studying Attention and Memory Processes
Cited by (306)
An exploration of multivariate symptom clusters of cannabis use disorder in young adults
2022, Addictive BehaviorsCognitive effort avoidance in veterans with suicide attempt histories
2022, Acta PsychologicaAnatomy and disorders of frontal lobe functions: Higher-order functions
2021, Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience: Second EditionImpulsivity in cocaine users compared to matched controls: Effects of sex and preferred route of cocaine use
2021, Drug and Alcohol Dependence