TREATMENT RESPONSE OF ANTISOCIAL SUBSTANCE-ABUSERS

We evaluated the relationship of antisociality to 7-month treatment re sponse in 224 alcohol- and/or cocaine-dependent men. Subjects with and without a DSM-III antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) responded si milarly and positively to treatment in a number of functional domains, including substance use. A more detailed analysis comparing subjects with ASPD, subjects meeting adult but not childhood ASPD criteria (A-A SPD), and subjects meeting neither adult nor childhood ASPD criteria ( pure non-ASPD) revealed similar and positive responses to treatment am ong the three groups. The antisocial groups had more cocaine and alcoh ol use at the baseline evaluation, but at 7-month follow-up, they had levels of use not significantly different than the pure non-ASPD group . The findings suggest that an ASPD diagnosis or an adult antisocial l ifestyle, at least as measured by DSM-III criteria, does not predict s hort-term treatment response.