Relationship of cognitive ability to the developmental course of antisocial behavior in substance-dependent patients

1. The present study examined cognitive differences among three groups of abstinent substance-dependent patients and a control group of non-drug users. The patient groups were defined according to their DSM III-R substance dependence diagnosis(es): heroin, cocaine, or dual alcohol and cocaine dependence. 2. In the initial analysis, which compared the four subject groups on scores from the Shipley Institute of Living Scale, no significant differences were found. However, the groups did vary on the number of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) behaviors. 3. Another set of analyses was conducted to examine the relationship between ASPD and SILS scores. Analyses of the effects of ASPD (+/-) across all of the patients revealed lower SILS scores in the ASPD-positive group. Additional analyses examined the developmental course of the ASPD effect by contrasting 1) patient groups characterized by childhood Conduct Disorder (CD) combined with adult ASPD vs. 2) childhood CD which did not continue into adulthood as ASPD vs. 3) adults who did not report childhood CD but who met other ASPD behavioral criteria as adults, vs. 4) subjects who had neither childhood CD nor adult ASPD. 4. In this analysis, it was found that patients who met diagnostic criteria for childhood Conduct Disorder, but whose antisocial behaviors resolved after age 15, had equivalent SILS scores to those patients with no childhood CD or adult ASPD. A decrement in SILS scores was only found in those patients whose antisocial behaviors persisted into adulthood. 5. ASPD adults who did not report childhood CD behaviors had normal SILS scores compared to Controls.