Measuring Personality Problems in Patients With Substance Use Disorders: A Cross-Sample Validation.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Addiction Medicine

Background:

• Co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD) and personality disorder (PD) worsen functional impairment and prognosis.
• Assessing personality problems in SUD patients is crucial for effective treatment.
• Reliable assessment tools are needed to understand the extent of personality dysfunction in SUD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the levels and reliability of personality functioning in SUD patients versus PD patients and the general population.
• To evaluate the Severity Indices of Personality Problems (SIPP) for assessing personality pathology in SUD.
• To discuss clinical implications of personality dysfunction in SUD populations.

Main Methods:

• Self-report Severity Indices of Personality Problems (SIPP) questionnaire administered to four groups: detoxification patients (N=136), long-term inpatient SUD patients (N=187), PD patients (N=1,399), and community respondents (N=935).
• Assessed scale reliability of SIPP facets across samples.
• Compared levels of personality problems among the four groups.

Main Results:

• The SIPP demonstrated acceptable scale reliability for most facets in SUD samples.
• SUD patient samples showed significantly greater personality dysfunction compared to the general community.
• Personality dysfunction levels in SUD patients were comparable to those in the PD patient sample.

Conclusions:

• The SIPP is a promising tool for assessing personality pathology in individuals undergoing SUD treatment.
• High levels of maladaptive personality functioning in SUD populations necessitate integrated treatment strategies.
• Findings challenge current clinical management and support the development of combined therapeutic approaches for SUD and PD.