Personality psychopathology, drug use and psychological symptoms in adolescents with substance use disorders and community controls

Ernesto Magallón-Neri; Rosa Díaz; Maria Forns; Javier Goti; Josefina Castro-Fornieles

doi:10.7717/peerj.992

Personality psychopathology, drug use and psychological symptoms in adolescents with substance use disorders and community controls

PeerJ. 2015 Jun 9:3:e992. doi: 10.7717/peerj.992. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Ernesto Magallón-Neri¹, Rosa Díaz², Maria Forns³, Javier Goti², Josefina Castro-Fornieles⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences Hospital Clinic Universitari of Barcelona , Spain ; Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona , Spain ; Institute of Research in Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3c) , Spain.
² Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences Hospital Clinic Universitari of Barcelona , Spain.
³ Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona , Spain ; Institute of Research in Brain, Cognition and Behavior (IR3c) , Spain.
⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences Hospital Clinic Universitari of Barcelona , Spain ; IDIBAPS (Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi Sunyer) , Barcelona , Spain ; Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona , Spain.

Abstract

Substance use is a risk behavior that tends to increase during adolescence, a time when part of the personality is still in development. Traditionally, personality psychopathology has been measured in terms of categories, although dimensional models have demonstrated better consistency. This study aimed to analyze differences in personality profiles between adolescents with substance use disorders (SUD n = 74) and matched community controls (MCC n = 74) using the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) dimensional model. Additionally, we compared age at first drug use, level of drug use and internalizing and externalizing symptoms between the groups. In this study, the PSY-5 model has proved to be useful for differentiating specific personality disturbances in adolescents with SUD and community adolescents. The Disconstraint scale was particularly useful for discriminating adolescents with substance use problems and the Delinquent Attitudes facet offered the best differentiation.

Keywords: Adolescents; Dimensional; Internalizing–externalizing symptoms; Personality psychopathology five (PSY-5); Substance use disorders.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a postdoctoral research fellowship to the first author from the University of Barcelona (BDR2013); by grants from MICINN, FEDER funds (PSI2009-11542); and, by grants from the Carlos III Institute (PI08/90331 and PI07/90428). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.