Underlying personality differences between alcohol/substance-use disorder patients with and without an affective...

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular personality test, was used to profile the personalities of in-patient alcoholics/substance-use disorder patients who had, and those who did not have, a concurrent affective disorder diagnosis. The MBTI divides individuals into eight categories: Extroverts and Introverts, Sensors and Intuitives, Thinkers and Feelers, and Judgers and Perceivers. Alcohol/substance-use disorder patients with no affective disorder differed from a normative population only in being significantly more often Sensing and significantly less often Intuitive single-factor types. The Extroverted/Sensing/ Feeling/Judging four-factor type was also significantly over-represented in this group, compared to a normative population. In contrast, mood-disordered alcohol/substance-use disorder patients were significantly more often Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving and significantly less often Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging single-factor types. They were also significantly more often Introverted/Sensing/ Feeling/Perceiving and Introverted/Intuitive/Feeling/Perceiving four-factor types. 'Pure' alcohol/ substance-use disorder patients differed from alcohol/substance-use disorder patients with a mood disorder in that they were significantly more often Extroverted and Thinking and significantly less often Introverted and Feeling single-factor types; and significantly less often were an Introverted/Sensing/ Feeling/Perceiving four-factor type. The above results may have psychogenetic, diagnostic, and psychotherapeutic implications.