MCMI-III-Derived Typological Analysis of Cocaine and Heroin Addicts

Abstract

A sample of 441 African American men who were either inpatient heroin or cocaine addicts, or both; were assessed with the MCMI-III. The modal codetype showed primary elevations on the Antisocial Personality Disorder Scale (6A), consistent with previous research using the MCMI-I and MCMI-II with substance abusers. The data were subjected to 3 independent clustering procedures that resulted in general consistency among procedures. The solutions were validated on a randomly selected half of the sample. Three subtypes were variants of the antisocial parent codetype, whereas another subtype was characterized by a Within Normal Limits profile suggesting no personality disorder. These 4 subtypes were also associated with different external correlates with significant clinical import. The results suggest that findings from previous research with substance-abusing patients, using the MCMI-I and MCMI-II, should be applicable to the MCMI-III as well.

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III Subtypes of Opioid Dependence: Validity and Matching to Behavioral Therapies.

“…Our highpsychiatric severity cluster (70% of sample) resembled that found by Craig et al (1997) using the MCMI-II in that all scales were elevated except for lower scores on Histrionic, Narcissistic, and Compulsive scales. Craig et al described these patients as a highly distressed, but emotionally detached, group with poor organizational and planning skills.…”

“…The comparison of cluster solutions on the concurrent validity variables helped determine whether increasing numbers of clusters were accompanied by increasing validity. We also considered the number of cases assigned to each cluster and regarded with a suspicion of unreliability (i.e., unlikely to generalize to other samples) any solution with subtypes consisting of fewer than 10% of the entire sample.Some studies have cluster analyzed the Axis I and II scales separately (Donat et al, 1991;Mayer & Scott, 1988), whereas others have combined them (Bartsch & Hoffman, 1985;Craig et al, 1985Craig et al, , 1997Donat, 1988). We first analyzed the axes separately to determine whether the empirically derived clusters resembled the a priori Axis I and II protocol-sorted subtypes.…”

Co-morbidity of drug addiction: An analysis of epidemiological data and possible etiological models

“…However, in the case of dependent personality disorder the effect is opposite: there is a higher prevalence in the group of white people, both in the case of women and men. In contrast, in the study of Craig et al (1997) conducted on an Afro-American mixed sample consisting of 441 cocaine and heroin addicts the frequency of narcissistic personality disorder was not found to be higher. This different result might have occurred due to the method, which combines narcissistic and antisocial symptoms, used by Calsyn and co-workers (Calsyn and Saxon 1990;Calsyn et al 1996).…”

Substance Abuse Problems, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Post-Treatment Status in MCMI Psychopathology Subgroups of Cocaine Dependent Males

“…Craig and associates have described this cluster type as showing pessimistic attitudes, unstable moods, and erratic behavior (19). Feelings of being misunderstood, unappreciated, and exploited may be linked with edgy irritability and impulsive acting out (9,19).…”

“…Few studies are available linking MCMI cluster group membership to drugrelated problems and treatment outcomes of those whose primary drug of abuse is cocaine (19,20). In this study, MCMI-II records of male cocaine abusers are cluster analyzed to provide additional information on MCMI cluster subtypes in this understudied group.…”