You are assessing a patient for features of dissocial personality disorder. Before revealing the answer, decide what you would specifically ask about.

Ask about the person's understanding of, and response to, the impact their behaviour has had on others — do they show genuine remorse, or only superficial apology followed by repetition of the same behaviour? Take a careful developmental history, asking about conduct disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, truancy, cruelty to animals, fighting, and substance misuse in childhood and adolescence. Ask about the pattern and stability of relationships, including any history of short-lived relationships or serial marriages ending in infidelity or violence. Specifically distinguish criminal or antisocial behaviour that occurs only in the context of substance misuse or a manic episode, or only during adolescence in a deprived background, from a lifelong pattern extending clearly into adulthood, since these should not be labelled as this personality disorder without that longer history.