Sadistic personality disorder

Sadistic personality disorder
Illustration showing the pleasure that sadistic people often have from hurting someone.
Specialty	Psychiatry, clinical psychology
Symptoms	Cruelty, manipulation using fear, preoccupation with violence
Complications	Substance use disorder, marital, occupational and legal difficulties
Usual onset	Adolescence
Causes	Unclear
Risk factors	Childhood abuse
Diagnostic method	Based on symptoms
Differential diagnosis	Antisocial personality disorder and Sexual sadism disorder

Sadistic personality disorder was a proposed personality disorder defined by a pervasive pattern of sadistic and cruel behavior. People with this disorder were thought to have desired to control others. It was believed they accomplish this through the use of physical or emotional violence. This diagnosis appeared in an appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R).^[1] The later versions of the DSM (DSM-IV, DSM-IV-TR, and DSM-5) do not include it. It was removed as psychiatrists believed it would be used to legally excuse sadistic behavior.