Tara Lavelle

Adolescent drug use, health and personality

Four factors have confounded the association between drug use and morbidity: (a) known drug users may be less healthy than unknown drug users; (b) drug users are rarely compared to control subjects; (c) the socio-economic status of drug users predisposes them to ill-health; (d) the personality of drug users predisposes them to ill-health. Here, controlling for these confounds, in a study of 210 adolescent drug users it was found that subjective ill-health was more strongly related to drug use than was objective ill-health. Drug use was related to neuroticism and psychopathic deviance. Controlling for personality, drug use accounted for little additional variance in health. It is concluded that drug use and health are not strongly related amongst adolescent drug users, although, because of their personalities, drug users tend not to feel well. Implications are discussed for the self-treatment explanation of drug use and for the design of preventative programmes.

Personality as an Explanation of Drug Use

The personalities of fifteen people in residential drug treatment were compared to those of people in a long-term hostel for the homeless and those of students. Many of the personality factors previously reported to be correlates of drug use did not distinguish between these three groups. Drug users tended to be similar to hostel residents, while both differed from students. Drug use was best predicted by the MAC scale of the MMPI and drug users tended to be shrewd, tough-minded, anxious, experience-seeking and well motivated for the future (perhaps related to entering treatment). It is concluded that many of the psychological phenomena which have been reported as correlates of drug use may be artifacts of using inadequate or incomparable control groups (such as students or general population norms). Also, previous research may have confused being “streetwise” with being “antisocial.”

Is the ‘Addictive Personality’ Merely Delinquency?

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered to 210 adolescents whose drug use ranged from using only licit drugs to the injection of opiates. The personality traits of drug users differed significantly between groups and between sexes. For both sexes, drug users scored significantly higher than non-users on a number of MMPI scales. For females, neuroticism (as measured by elevations on the hypocondriasis, depression and hysteria scales) was more important in predicting the use of licit drugs and cannabis, with psychopathic deviance and mania being more important in predicting other illicit drugs. For males, elevated psychopathic deviance and mania scale scores were strongly associated with extent of drug use. The possibility that these two scales only measure “delinquency” rather than a more permanent personality type is discussed.