ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER AND DEPRESSION IN RELATION TO ALCOHOLISM - A COMMUNITY-BASED SAMPLE

Objective: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) and depression frequ ently co-occur with alcoholism. This study examined the relationship b etween the presence of ASPD or depression and the course and severity of alcoholism. Method. Alcoholic men (n = 207), recruited from a commu nity-based sample, the Minnesota Twin-Family Study (MTFS), were catego rized according to comorbid diagnoses into the following four groups: alcoholics with ASPD (n = 25), alcoholics with depression (n = 24), al coholics with neither ASPD nor depression, but who were allowed to hav e additional psychopathology (n = 130) and alcoholics with no other ps ychiatric diagnoses (n = 28). The four diagnostic subgroups were compa red on alcohol and drug use, alcohol-related problems and personality dimensions. Results: ASPD was associated with an earlier age of first intoxication, a more chronic and severe course of alcoholism. more soc ial consequences of drinking and higher levels of drug use. On the who le. depression was associated with a less severe course of alcoholism. Alcoholics with depression and alcoholics with ASPD had higher negati ve emotionality, and alcoholics with ASPD had lower constraint scores on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Conclusions: These findings, derived from a community-based sample, indicate the importan ce of assessing comorbidity among alcoholics and confirm the associati on of ASPD with a more severe and chronic course of alcoholism and wit h higher likelihood of drug abuse.