Psychological functioning of cocaine free-basers derived from objective psychological tests

This paper reports on two separate studies that compared cocaine free-basers with opiate addicts on objective personality tests (Adjective Checklist and MMPI). Both groups showed a similar organization of needs. While opiate addicts were characterized by acting-out traits, rebelliousness, depression, anxiety, alienation, and hyperactivity, the cocaine free-basers were characterized by similar traits, but at modulated levels of severity. Implications for treatment programs and for pharmacodynamic theories, with emphasis on the relationship between underlying personality structure and drug of choice, were discussed.