Alcohol use patterns and disorders among individuals with personality disorders in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Introduction Alcohol Use Disorders are frequently comorbid with personality disorders. However, the heterogeneity of the prevalence estimates is high, and most data come from high income countries. Our aim is to estimate the prevalence and association between alcohol use outcomes and the three DSM-5 clusters of personality disorders in a representative sample of the São Paulo Metropolitan Area. Materials and methods A representative household sample of 2,942 adults was interviewed using the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview and the International Personality Disorder Examination Screening Questionnaire. Lifetime PD diagnoses were multiply imputed, and AUD diagnoses were obtained using DSM-5 criteria. We conducted cross-tabulations and logistic regression to estimate the associations between AUDs and PDs. Results and discussion Our study did not find significant associations of PDs with heavy drinking patterns or mild AUD. Cluster B PD respondents tended to show the highest conditional prevalence estimates of most alcohol use patterns and AUD, including its severity subtypes. When alcohol outcomes were regressed on all PD Clusters simultaneously, with adjustment for sex and age, only cluster B was significantly associated with past-year alcohol use (OR 3.0), regular drinking (OR 3.2), and AUDs (OR 8.5), especially moderate and severe cases of alcohol use disorders (OR 9.7 and 16.6, respectively). These associations between Cluster B PDs and these alcohol outcomes were shown to be independent of other PD Clusters and individuals´ sex and age. Conclusion The main finding of our study is that AUDs are highly comorbid with PDs. The presence of Cluster B PDs significantly increases the odds of alcohol consumption and disorders and of more severe forms of AUDs. Considering the local context of poor treatment provision, more specific prevention and intervention strategies should be directed to this population.

Masculine depression and its problem behaviors: use alcohol and drugs, work hard, and avoid psychiatry!

“…Cluster B personality disorders (narcissistic, borderline, dissocial, and histrionic personality disorders) are characterized by impulsive, dramatic, emotionally unstable, and erratic behaviors. Patients with such a personality disorder are also at an increased risk of AUD [ 37 ].…”

Perfiles de personalidad, droga de impacto y seguimiento de pacientes atendidos en un centro de rehabilitación al Noreste de México

“…Aunque la literatura internacional ha documentado la relación entre perfiles o trastornos de personalidad, consumo de sustancias y seguimiento de los pacientes (Fernández-Montalvo et al, 2004;Hanna et al, 2021;Kienast et al, 2014;Martínez-González et al, 2014;Parmar & Kaloiya, 2018;Rodríguez & Salgado, 2018;Smith & Cottler, 2020), en México se han realizado investigaciones aún de manera incipiente en este tema (Caraveo et al, 2002;López & López, 2007;Marín-Navarrete et al, 2013), por lo cual resulta necesario estudiar comunidades que acuden a recibir tratamiento especializado (Alfonzo-Bello et al, 2017); siguiendo la recomendación de Parmar & Kaloiya (2018), quienes indican que se requiere realizar investigación sobre personalidad, TUS y seguimiento de los pacientes en diferentes países y culturas, que permita contar con recomendaciones que puedan ser generalizables.…”