CORRESPONDENCE

prospective longitudinal designs, systemati- from how it was used by Yang et aletal. Patho-.Patho- defined in several different ways, no speci- cally ascertained samples and perhaps logical lying is distinct from malingering or fic psychological test is available. Hence implicit measures which cover other the other forms of lying exhibited by those we applied a symptom-based approach potentially interesting and clinically rele- included by Yang et aletal in the liars group. and defined individuals as ‘liars’ if they ful- vant cognitive traits such as goal attain- We defined pathological lying as ‘falsifi- filled: (a) criteria for pathological lying ment, attributions, self-representations and cation entirely disproportionate to any dis- on the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised novelty-seeking. cernible end in view, may be extensive and (PCL–R), (b) criteria for conning/manipula- very complicated, and may manifest over a tive behaviour on the PCL–R, (c) the deceit- Power, M. J., Katz, R., McGuffin, P., et aletal (19(1994) 94) The period of years or even a lifetime’. Patholo- fulness criterion for DSM–IV, or (d) criteria Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS): a comparison of forms A and B and proposal for a new sub-scaled gical lying is a repetitive pattern of lying for for malingering as reported in a self-report version. Journal of Research in Personality,, 28,263^276., 263^276. which an external reason (such as financial crime interview. gain) often appears absent, and the psy- We maintain that our study did inves- L. Jones Department of Psychiatry,University of chological basis is often unclear. This tigate at least one form of pathological Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, definition has not been accepted by the psy- lying. In a new analysis, we found that Birmingham B29 5JF,5JF,UK. UK. chiatric community but summarises the 42% of our liars had psychopathy, anti- Email: l.a.jones@@bham.ac.uk elements of pathological lying. Inter- social personality disorders or borderline J. ScottJ.Scott Division of Psychological Medicine, estingly, we found that pathological lying personality disorder. These liars likely Institute of Psychiatry,London,UK can also be found among successful indi- correspond to those Healy & Healy I. Jones, N. Craddock Department of viduals without a history of criminal (1926) refer to as ‘secondary pathological Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University,Cardiff, UK behaviour.behaviour. liars’ – people whose lying is a complica- doi: 10.1192/bjp.189.1.85a We commend Yang et aletal for investigat- tion of disorders such as those above. ing the neurobiological basis of lying. The other 58% of our group, who did Whether the prefrontal white matter not meet this comorbid requirement, prob- changes indicate a causal relationship with ably correspond to the ‘primary pathologi- lying or just an association is unknown. cal liars’ described by Healy & Healy – What is pathological lying? However, pathological lying per seperse waswas people who habitually lie but do not The article by Yang et aletal (2005) is provoca- not specifically investigated, as suggested. demonstrate symptoms of a clearly defined tive, thoughtful and intriguing and provided psychiatric disorder. This new analysis much food for thought. Participants were Dike, C. C., Baranoski, M. & Griffith, E. E. H. (2005) also revealed that liars with or without divided into three groups: liars, normal con- Pathological lying revisited. Journal of the American psychiatric disorders showed significantly Academy of Psychiatry and the Law,, 3333, 342^349.,342^349. trols and antisocial controls. Half of those increased prefrontal white matter volume in the liars group were malingerers and Yang,Y., Raine, A., Lencz, T., et aletal (2005)(2005) Prefrontal compared with antisocial controls the others displayed conning/manipulative white matter in pathological liars. British Journal of ((PP¼0.003,0.003, PP¼0.01, two-tailed respec- PsychiatryPsychiatry,, 187187, 320^325.,320^325. behaviour on the Psychopathy Checklist – tively) and normal controls (PP¼0.005,0.005, Revised (PCL–R), deceitfulness criteria for C. Dike Department of Psychiatry,Law and PP¼0.014 respectively). Although our study DSM–IV antisocial personality disorders Psychiatry Division,Yale University Medical School, is a preliminary attempt to reveal brain ab- or pathological lying as defined in the New Haven, CT 06519,USA. normalities in people who lie, cheat and PCL–R. Yang et aletal referred to pathological Email: cd244@@email.med.yale.edu deceive we hope that it will stimulate in- liars specifically in the title of their paper terest in this important but understudied M. Baranoski, E. E. H. Griffith Department of but we are concerned that the definition Psychiatry,Law and Psychiatry Division,Yale phenomenon. of liars was so broad and wondered University Medical School, New Haven, whether the article would not have been Connecticut,USA Healy,W.Healy, W. & Healy, M.T.M. T. (1926) Pathological Lying, better entitled ‘Prefrontal white matter in Accusation and Swindling. Boston, MA: Little Brown. doi: 10.1192/bjp.189.1.86 liars’. The authors included individuals with different lying characteristics in a Y.YangY. Ya n g Department of Psychology,University of group of pathological liars and this is pro- Southern California, Los Angeles,CA 90089,USA. blematic.blematic. Authors’ reply: We wholeheartedly agree Email: yalingy@@usc.eduusc.edu Our recent review (Dike et aletal, 2005),2005) with DikewithDike et aletal that the definition of ‘patho- A. Raine Department of Psychology,University of showed that the term ‘pathological lying’ logical liar’ is vague and confusing. Southern California, Los Angeles,Angeles,California,USA California, USA has been used differently in the literature Although pathological lying has been doi: 10.1192/bjp.189.1.86a

86

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 26 Sep 2021 at 12:31:20, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use.