Personality Profiles of Individuals with Substance Use Disorders: Historical Overview and Current Directions

Abstract

Efforts to understand personality features of people who use psychoactive substances have a long history, dating back to early psychoanalytic conceptualizations. Advancements in the field have focused on applying multidimensional personality inventories to better understand personality differences between substance users and non-users, and between different substance use types, with respect to both psychopathological traits and broad dimensional factors. A brief review of this evidence highlights personality features of persons with alcohol and other substance use problems and between users of different types of substances, especially alcohol and opioid substance use disorder patients. A better understanding of personality profiles of substance use disorder groups may be useful in tailoring treatment approaches based on profile characteristics.Medical and psychological research literature documents a long history of attempts to identify and characterize personality profiles associated with problematic substance use. Approaches to this question have varied, utilizing objective, projective, dimensional, and categorical measures of personality as well as psychoanalytic formulation of substance use behavior. Studies initially focused on examining evidence for the existence of an "alcoholic" or "addictive" personality structure that may predispose individuals to engage in problematic alcohol and drug use.Research efforts have shifted away from attempts to identify an overriding concept of a single personality type 1 . More recent work seeks to develop etiologic predictive models that identify and compare personality profiles of users and nonusers and between users of different substances. Furthermore, these newer approaches have increasingly used more complex and integrative models incorporating both biological and socioeconomic factors. The current paper provides a brief narrative review of research evidence exploring personality profiles of individuals with substance use disorders as well as differences in personality traits among users of different substances. Understanding differences in personality patterns may help inform targeted intervention efforts to address personality-level factors that underpin substance use and risk factors in substance use disorders, which may differ among individuals who use different substances. Psychoanalytic ApproachesEarly psychoanalytic approaches emphasized drives toward libidinal gratification and defenses against aggressive impulses as the basis for addiction and substance use [2][3][4] . Moreover, fixation at

Personality changes related to presence and treatment of substance use (disorders): a systematic review

“…Heavy substance use (SU) and substance use disorders (SUD) are highly prevalent conditions that can have severe consequences for individuals, their families, and society (Gowing et al, 2015). According to vulnerability/diathesis-stress-models (Whelan et al, 2014;Wittchen et al, 2014;Zuckerman, 2000), SU(D) results from interactions between environmental stressors, psychosocial characteristics, and individual vulnerabilities, including specific personality traits (Kotov, Gamez, Schmidt, & Watson, 2010;Nevid, Gordon, Miele, & Keating, 2020).…”

“…The predictive role of personality traits in SUD has been widely studied (for a meta-analysis see Kotov et al, 2010). In line with the vulnerability model, numerous studies have shown that certain trait levels, especially high neuroticism, impulsivity, and sensation seeking, as well as low self-directedness and harm avoidance, relate to an increased risk for SUD (Dash et al, 2019;Kotov et al, 2010;Nevid et al, 2020;Sher, Bartholow, & Wood, 2000;Whiteside & Lynam, 2009). In contrast, much less is known about personality changes associated with SU(D) (Blonigen et al, 2015;Kroencke, Kuper, Bleidorn, & Denissen, 2021).…”

“…Despite its importance, research on SU(D)-related personality changes is fragmented and lacks a comprehensive synthesis (Kroencke et al, 2021;Nevid et al, 2020). Thus, this systematic review aims to summarize existing evidence in this field by addressing the following research questions: (1) How does personality change before, during, and after the onset or remission of SU(D) (within-person comparisons)?…”

Personality traits and substance use among college students in Eldoret, Kenya

“…Among the very few similar studies from African countries, a Nigerian study that reported low agreeableness trait and high extraversion trait scores as significantly associated with lifetime alcohol use among undergraduate students [9]. Research [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] has additionally shown that certain personality profiles are somewhat predisposed to using substances (generally high neuroticism, high openness to experience, low agreeableness, and low conscientiousness) or even linked to a preferential choice of drug. To date, there has been no local systematic study to validate these findings, yet they are often cited as having universal application.…”

Premorbid Personality Traits as Risk Factors for Behavioral Addictions: A Systematic Review of a Vulnerability Hypothesis

“…However, research on the FFM with children is also flourishing, demonstrating that personality traits predict school performance and intelligence [ 57 , 58 , 59 ], self-esteem [ 57 ], and measures of internalizing and externalizing disorders [ 57 , 60 , 61 ] in middle childhood and adolescence. Other studies on adolescents have analyzed the predictive role of personality traits for substance addiction such as drugs [ 62 ], but studies related to behavioral addiction adopted mainly a correlational design approach in studying the linear associations between personality traits defined in line with the FFM and Internet addiction [ 63 ], gaming addiction [ 64 ], or social networking addiction [ 65 ]. The current study aims to overlap this gap, starting from the consideration that the underlaying structure of personality for behavior, even if measured and empirically evaluated in adults, may be a feature of significant novelty and relevance, both to research and to the preventive policy of addictive behaviors, since the earliest ages.…”