ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER, PSYCHOPATHY AND INJECTING HEROIN USE

Two hundred community-based methadone patients (CM); 200 prison inmate s enrolled in prison methadone programs (PM); and 150 prison inmates w ith no history of heroin use (PNH) were interviewed to obtain diagnose s of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and Psychopathy Checklist- defined psychopathy. Large proportions of subjects in all three groups met the criteria for a diagnosis of ASPD (CM 44%, PM 65%, PNH 31%), w ith the two methadone groups having significantly higher proportions o f ASPD diagnoses than non-heroin users. There were no differences betw een groups in the proportions diagnosed as psychopathic (CM 4%, PM 9%, PNH 4%). For each group, the proportions diagnosed as ASPD were signi ficantly higher than the proportions diagnosed as psychopathic. Implic ations for the diagnosis of ASPD are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scie nce Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.