PERSONALITY AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS .1. EFFECTS OF GENDER AND ALCOHOLISM SUBTYPE

The relationship between alcoholism and self-rated personality was exp lored in a community-ascertained sample of 303 male and 103 female alc oholics, and 304 male and 770 female nonalcoholics. Alcoholics met DSM -III-R lifetime criteria for alcohol dependence; personality was asses sed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Compared wit h controls, alcoholics scored significantly higher on all indicators o f negative emotionality, and consistently lower on all indicators of c onstraint. Individual effect sizes were moderate in both the male and female samples. A subsample of severe male alcoholics, identified by c luster analysis, was characterized by relatively early onset of proble m drinking and relatively high antisociality and familial loading of p roblem drinking; they were also more extreme than moderate male alcoho lics on negative emotionality and constraint. When taken in aggregate, personality risk appears to be associated with a continuum of alcohol ic risk such that individuals extreme in both negative emotionality an d behavioral disinhibition have especially high rates of alcoholism.