Personality and alcohol/substance-use disorder patient relapse and attendance at self-help group meetings

This study evaluated the role of personality in the short-term outcome of a lcohol/substance-use disorder patients. Detoxifying alcohol/substance-use d isorder patients were administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), the Michigan Alcohol Sc reening Test (MAST), the CAGE Questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Invent ory (BDI). These patients were subsequently evaluated over a I-month period for relapse and attendance at self-help group meetings. High TPQ Persisten ce scale scores predicted abstinence. When the Thinking and Feeling groups were considered separately, and when these two groups were combined into a single group, high scores for the individual groups and the combined group (i.e. Thinking and Feeling types together) predicted abstinence. High TPQ P ersistence scale scores and low Shyness with Strangers and Fear of Uncertai nty subscale scores predicted attendance at self-help group meetings. High MBTI Extroversion and high MBTI Thinking scores also predicted attendance a t self-help group meetings. When the Extroverted and Introverted types and the Thinking and Feeling types respectively were combined, as with abstinen ce, high scores predicted attendance at self-help group meetings. Age, gend er, CAGE, MAST, and BDI scores did not pre diet outcome. The above informat ion suggests that specific personality variables may predict abstinence and attendance at self-help group meetings in recently detoxified alcoholics, and this mag have prognostic and therapeutic significance.