VALIDITY OF 3 MEASURES OF ANTISOCIALITY IN PREDICTING HIV RISK BEHAVIORS IN METHADONE-MAINTENANCE PATIENTS

Most opiate users are injection drug users (IDUs). A significant perce ntage of IDUs have antisocial personality disorder (APD). APD has been found by some researchers to be an additional risk factor for human i mmunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in IDUs. The present study evalu ated the association of sociodemographic characteristics, substance ab use history, and several measures of antisociality including the DSM-I II-R diagnosis made by the Personality Disorder Examination, the Calif ornia Psychological Inventory-Socialization Scale, and Hare's Revised Psychopathy Checklist, to behaviors associated with HIV risk in 289 op iate-dependent methadone-maintained subjects. The presence of drug-and sex-related risky behaviors measured by the Risk Assessment Battery w as predicted more consistently by measures of personality traits assoc iated with antisociality than by a diagnosis of APD. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.