Personality characteristics in patients with substance use disorders in Bulgaria

Abstract: Substance use disorders are associated with various personality characteristics. The present study compares the levels of impulsivity, aggressiveness and antisocial behavior in  alcohol/drug addicts included in treatment programs and healthy controls. It also explores the role of early onset of substance use for the degree of manifestation of the studied personality characteristics. The study was conducted among 270 adults aged >18 years in Sofia, Bulgaria. The treatment group consists of 99 male and 36 female with alcohol or drug addiction. The representatives of the control group are balanced by gender and age with the experimental group. To personality characteristics were measured via scales constructed for the purposes of the study and their construct validity is reported. The data was analysed via independent samples t-test and One-way Anova & Games-Howell PostHoc Test. The results reveal that people with SUD have significantly higher levels of impulsivity, aggressiveness and antisocial behaviour than the participants from the control group. Further analysis revealed that both alcoholics and drug addicts (included in either methadone maintenance treatment program or drug-free rehabilitation program) perform significantly worse on all domains in comparison to controls. In addition results show significantly higher levels of antisocial behaviour of drug addicts from both types of program in comparison to alcohol addicts. The data also indicates that the patients with early onset of substance abuse (before age of 15) have significantly higher levels of impulsivity, aggressiveness and antisocial behaviour. Although the received results are promising, further research is needed to confirm these tendencies. Both the knowledge related to the personality characteristics studied and the methods used to measure them can be applied in treatment and rehabilitation of SUD.