ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIORAL SYNDROMES AMONG RESIDENTIAL DRUG-ABUSE TREATMENT CLIENTS

We compared residential addictions treatment clients meeting full crit eria for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD +) with those reporting syndromal levels of antisocial behavior only in adulthood (AABS +) on demographics, antisocial symptomatology, drug history, axis I comorbi dity and characteristics of index treatment episode. We examined these issues in the sample as a whole, as well as separately in male and fe male respondents. Among both men and women, ASPD + initiated their ant isocial behavior earlier, met more ASPD criteria and endorsed more vio lent symptoms, than AABS +. Male ASPD + also met criteria for more lif etime axis I diagnoses and reported more years of drug involvement tha n male AABS c. Trends were observed toward poorer retention in treatme nt among ASPD + than among AABS + participants of both genders randomi zed to a planned duration of 180 days, but retention did not differ be tween ASPD + and AABS + randomized to a planned duration of 90 days. O ur findings, which replicate and extend previously published results, carry potential implications for treatment programming and for the nos ology of ASPD. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.