Previous evaluations of wife assault treatment outcome have focused generically on whether or not groups succeed without a clear criterion of what constitutes success. This study found that certain types of personality disordered men had the worst post-treatment prognosis. Specifically, men with high scores on borderline personality, antisocial personality, and avoidant personality fared least well after treatment. However, taken as a generic group, men in treatment had significantly reduced post-treatment abusiveness whether reported by themselves or their wives. Since so many antisocial personalities are also psychopathic, and since psychopaths are poor treatment risks, the question arises as to whether antisocial men can be helped by group treatment at all, and, if they cannot, whether they should be screened out of treatment. This study could be a basis for future assessment of that and related questions by examining criminal histories of the present cohort and cross-indexing recidivism by personality profile. Tables, references