Personality in male patients with substance use disorder and/or severe mental illness

Temperament and character profiles are associated with depression outcome in psychiatric secondary care patients with harmful drinking

“…In line with these findings, one study in which patients with prior SUD were not excluded resulted in MDD patients in remission having higher RD than currently depressed patients [24]. More specifically, the presence of SUD together with severe mental illness (SMI, including patients with MDD or schizophrenia) seems to be associated with low RD as dually diagnosed patients have lower RD than do SUD patients, but there is no significant difference in trait RD between patients with SMI or SUD without the comorbidity of the other [3]. The finding of an association between high RD (at 6 weeks) and better outcome of depression together with our earlier finding may be explained by depression state-dependent alterations in brain reward pathway functions in patients comorbid with SUD, and hence confirm a possible association between Reward Dependence and depression treatment outcome when alcohol use problems are taken into account [16,39].…”

“…This argument is justified because earlier findings have shown that AUDs are associated with both: 1) the development of more chronic courses of depressive symptomatology [1,2], and 2) high HA and low SD. More specifically high HA and low SD are both associated with dual diagnosis [3], and high HA also with more severe AUDs [22]. Moreover, it is plausible that lower ability to organized problem solving or greater distress associated with avoidant behavior that are associated with low SD and high HA, respectively, could predispose these individuals to a higher risk of alcohol use problems.…”

“…Assessment of individual temperament and character traits could provide a method for enhancing preventive and more individualized treatment strategies for these patients because certain traits and temperaments may predispose individuals to recurrence of depression, and are associated with different courses of depression and with substance use disorder comorbidity and drinking outcomes [3][4][5][6]. Individual personality could have pathoplastic effects on recovery from depression; i.e., differences in temperament or character could explain differences in the course of the illness [7].…”

“…Our earlier study of this patient sample suggested that RD is associated with depression treatment outcome in patients with alcohol use problems as change in RD was strongly associated with acute treatment response (0-6 weeks) to depression when alcohol use was taken into account [16]. High NS is a trait indisputably associated with risk of substance use disorders, more severe symptomatology and poorer outcome in SUD patients, and apparently experienced at a higher level in patients with dual diagnosis (concurrent SUD and mental illness) than in depressed patients [3,6,[17][18][19][20]. Low P and high HA are associated with more severe alcohol dependence symptomatology [21][22][23].…”

Dual Diagnosis Patients First Admitted to a Psychiatric Ward for Acute Psychiatric Patients: 2-Year Period 2003–2004 versus 2013–2014

“…Although only a few studies have investigated personality dimensions in DD patients with the model developed by Cloninger, most of these found an association with high scores on the temperamental dimension of "novelty seeking" [31,32] as well as with high scores on "harm avoidance" [31]. According to Cloninger's descriptions of these temperament dimensions, we may expect patients with high scores on "novelty seeking" using drugs to search pleasure and to escape boredom and patients with high scores on "harm avoidance" using substances to achieve relief from tension and unpleasant or painful emotional states [33].…”