Drug misuse and psychopathology: a meta-analysis of 16PF research

This report presents a meta-analysis of a series of published 16PF findings which describe score profiles of nine groups of substance users/abusers, a nonuser comparison group, seven psychiatric groups, a group of criminals, and a group of gang delinquents. Analytical procedures include K Means Clustering, Cattell's rp statistic, and Pearson r. Although drug use was found to be associated with various forms of psychiatric diagnoses, it was not found to be associated with any particular form of psychopathology. The 16PF profiles of groups of users of different substances were not homogeneous within groups. Some similarity, however, was found among profiles of alcoholics. No evidence could be found to support the contention that groups of substance abusers yield the particular profile pattern on the 16PF that was ascribed to them in an earlier meta-analyses. Due to the inadequacies of the 16PF in diagnosing psychiatric conditions, it is suggested that a more fruitful direction of future research might be to use Cattell's Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ).