The stability of personality measures in drug abusers during withdrawal

The present report is of the stability of personality measures within a group of polydrug abusers during withdrawal. The EPQ (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975) and a questionnaire assessing disturbances of perceptual and cognitive functioning (Reichenstein, 1976) were the instruments employed. Initial assessments were made within 24 hours of admission and were repeated at 4 weeks and 8 weeks after drug withdrawal. Scores on Psychoticism, Neuroticism, and Extraversion showed considerable stability, although the Lie Score decreased across occasions. Mean scores on the Reichenstein Scale were initially elevated but subsequently normalized. The findings suggest that previously reported scores of drug abusers on the EPQ are not an artifact of drug status.