ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER AND RESPONSE TO METHADONE-MAINTENANCETREATMENT

A sample of 183 current methadone maintenance patients were interviewe d on their drug use history, criminal history, current drug use, and s ymptoms of Anti-social Personality Disorder (ASPD). Thirty-nine percen t of patients met the DSM-III-R criteria for a diagnosis of ASPD. ASPD patients had an earlier onset of drug use, drug injecting, heroin use , had wider polydrug using histories and had been arrested earlier and more frequently than other patients. Despite the different pretreatme nt histories of ASPD and other patients, there were no differences bet ween the two groups in retention in treatment, methadone dosage or her oin use. It is concluded that heroin-dependent ASPD patients can be su ccessfully retained in methadone treatment, on similar methadone doses and with similar in-treatment drug use patterns as those of non-ASPD heroin dependent patients.