A behavior profile of polydrug abusers

Polydrug abusers have been thought to present with characteristic behavior profiles and to suffer from brain damage. In this study, an attempt was made to delineate the behavior characteristics of polydrug abusers using the Personality Inventory developed by Bear and Fedio for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). In addition to a group of normal youths, a contrast group comparable to the polydrug abusers in psychiatric history, education, socioeconomic status, and family history was employed. Results revealed that for almost all traits the scores of polydrug abusers were the most extreme, while those of the controls the least, with the scores of the contrast group falling in between. The inventory correctly classified 87% of the experimental, 81% of the control, and 71% of the contrast group. The profile of personality traits that identified the polydrug abusers considerably overlapped with the profile of TLEs reported by Bear and Fedio, although the significance of the overlap is at present unclear. Future research is suggested to examine a possible limbic system involvement in polydrug abuse.