Prevalence of Personality Disorders among Alcoholics and Drug Addicts: An Overview

Abstract

Personality disorders (PDs) are considered to be potential predictors of outcome and potential matching variables. In this report the authors review the available epidemiological studies regarding the overall prevalence of DSM-III(Pv) PDs in alcohol, cocaine, opiate and polydrug addicts in both patient and nonpatient samples. Special attention is paid to the prevalence of antisocial and borderline PDs. Fifty-two studies were identified covering the time period 1982–1994. The findings of these studies suggest that the best estimate of overall axis II prevalence ranges from 44% among alcoholics to 79% among opiate addicts. However, a wide range of prevalence rates was observed in all types of substance use disorders. These differences could only partly be accounted for by differences in primary substance of abuse, assessment procedure, and setting. Gender distribution, the alternate application of exclusion criteria, classification system and time-frame, seem to be other important factors in understanding the divergent findings.

Diagnostic Efficiency of the German Version of the Self-Rated Standardized Assessment of Personality – Abbreviated Scale

“…Third, generalization of our findings was limited to outpatients, considering that different base rates of PD and symptom spectrum, as expected in an inpatient setting, primary care, or the general population, have an impact on the ROCs of screening measures. Although it is well known that PDs co-occur with substance use disorders [46], individuals with both PD and substance use disorders were nearly absent in the present sample due to the specialization of the outpatient unit, which is recognized for the treatment of anxiety and affective disorders. Fourth, ROC analysis requires a classification into two subsamples (i.e., with and without PD), which seemed to be inappropriate when a dimensional assessment of personality is favored [e.g., [47]].…”

Uso y abuso de los autoinformes en la evaluación de los trastornos de personalidad

“…A su vez, los trastornos de personalidad más frecuentemente hallados son también muy variables, pero destacan, entre ellos, el antisocial y el límite, dentro del grupo B, y el trastorno de la personalidad por evitación, dentro del grupo C (Fernández-Montalvo y . Esta amplia variabilidad de resultados se ha atribuido a diferentes factores (Verheul, Van den Brink y Hartgers, 1995): los instrumentos de evaluación utilizados, el contexto del estudio (pacientes internos o ambulatorios), la distribución por sexos de la muestra, los criterios de inclusión o exclusión aplicados (por ejemplo, la existencia de consumo añadido de otras drogas), el sistema de clasificación empleado y el momento de la evaluación (antes, durante o después de la abstinencia).…”

Article

“…Søgaard Nielsen et al (1999) fandt, at 1/3 af en gruppe ambulante klienter opfyldte ICD-10 kriterier for personligheds-forstyrrelse. Og i den tidligere omtalte litteraturgennemgang af Verheul et al (1995) Sammenlignet med andre undersøgelser synes praevalensen af personlighedsforstyrrelser høj i naervaerende undersøgelse. Dette kan skyldes, at klientellet på Ringgården gennem de senere år er blevet mere belastet, fordi det er en bevidst visitationsstrategi i et flertal af danske amter at behandle de lettere klienter ambulant og give de tungere klienter døgnbe-handling.…”

“…Nielsen & Søgaard Nielsen 2001): døgnklienten har laengere misbrugsvarighed trods stort set samme gennemsnitsalder, lavere alder for problemdebut, større intensivt alkoholkonsum, ringere tilknytning til arbejdsmarkedet og en svagere samlivssituation end den typiske ambulante klient. I studier, hvori indgår både ambulante og døgnbehandlede klienter, er der i øvrigt generelt fundet en højere praevalens af personlighedsforstyrrelser i døgnregi (Verheul et al 1995).…”

“…En generel opfattelse af, at der blandt alkoholmisbrugere skulle findes én specifik personlighedsprofil afkraeftes, ikke blot af naervaerende undersøgelses fund af tilstedevaerelse af mange forskellige personlighedsmønstre/-forstyrrelser, men også af tilsvarende fund i en raekke andre undersøgelser (Andreoli et al 1989;DeJong et al 1993: Rounsaville et al 1987Simonsen et al 1992;Verheul et al 1995). Opfattelsen af, at der eksisterer et "alkoholisk personlighedssyndrom", synes altså grundløs: mange af de alkoholmisbrugere, vi ser i behandlingssystemet, er personlighedsforstyrrede, men på en raekke forskellige må-der.…”