Personality disorders in alcoholics: a comparative pilot study between the IPDE and the MCMI-II

In this paper, the most frequent personality disorders (PDs) related to alcoholism are described. 105 participants took part in the study (50 consecutively recruited treatment-seeking alcoholics and 55 subjects from the general population). All subjects were assessed with the IPDE and the MCMI-II. According to the results in the IPDE, 22% of alcoholics, versus 7.27% of the normal sample, showed at least one PD. The most prevalent PDs were the Avoidance personality disorder (10%), followed by the Non-specified (8%) and Borderline (6%). When the MCMI-II was used a significantly higher prevalence of PDs was observed (52% in alcoholics and 18.1% in the normal sample), without coincidence in the kind of PDs diagnosed. This lack of consistency is probably related to the assessment tools, mainly the IPDE, which is more accurate and conservative than self-report inventories, which present a tendency for over-diagnosis.