ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER AND AGGRESSION IN RECENTLY ABSTINENT COCAINE-DEPENDENT SUBJECTS

To study the relationship between cocaine abstinence symptoms, persona lity, and aggression, we used the (C)Point Subtraction Aggression Para digm (PSAP) to measure aggression in 18 subjects admitted for the trea tment of cocaine dependence. Eight subjects met criteria for antisocia l personality disorder (ASPD). There was a significant correlation bet ween presence of ASPD and frequency of aggressive responding by stepwi se multiple regression. When presence of ASPD was factored out of the correlations, there was no significant relationship between aggressive responding and cocaine craving, withdrawal symptoms, amount of cocain e used, or length of time since use. These preliminary results suggest that in cocaine dependent individuals seeking treatment, current aggr ession is most dependent on the individual's previous aggressive behav ior. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.