SUBTYPES OF ADULT ANTISOCIAL-BEHAVIOR AMONG DRUG-ABUSERS

Recent work has shown that a substantial proportion of injecting drug users would have met criteria for antisocial personality disorder (ASP D) if the childhood trajectory of conduct disorder (CD) were ignored. From among 545 St. Louis, Missouri, drug users interviewed in person, we evaluated the clinical homogeneity of the 405 men and women with ad ult antisocial behaviors who did and did not have conduct disorder. Th e fully diagnosed ASPD group (those with CD) was distinguishable from the adult antisocial behavior only group without CD on all childhood b ehaviors, adult impulsive and aggressive behaviors, and measures of se vere drug abuse, including earlier age of onset of drug use and drug t reatment utilization. Clinical homogeneity of the groups was reflected by the group's similarity on indices such as types of adult antisocia l behaviors, consequences of drug use, injection drug use history, and comorbid psychiatric disorders. Implications for a modification in th e concept of ASPD are addressed.