The Role of Dimensional Maladaptive Personality Traits and Severity of Personality Pathology in Predicting Substance Use

In recent decades, the relationship between personality traits and attitudes toward substance use has attracted much attention. Accordingly, evidence suggested a significant direct relationship between personality traits and the tendency to substance use. However, studies on the relationship between the Personality Inventory for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th Edition (DSM–5) (PID-5) PID-5 model, personality pathology, and the tendency to substance use are scarce. Moreover, our survey revealed that no studies had been conducted in this respect in Iran. Drug abuse, as a prevalent condition, is of numerous etiologies, one of which is maladaptive personality traits. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between maladaptive characteristics and the severity of personality disorders in predicting substance use tendency.

This descriptive research was conducted from January 2018 to December 2019 in Tehran City, Iran. The statistical population of this study consisted of 300 healthy individuals with substance abuse disorder referring to substance dependence treatment centers who were selected by the convenience sampling method. Data gathering tools were the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form (PID-5-BF), the Standardized Assessment of Severity of Personality Disorder (SASPD), and the Addiction Tendency Questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed by correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis methods using SPSS.

The current study results revealed that drug use tendency is significantly associated with personality traits. Among the maladaptive traits, antagonism had the highest correlation with drug use (0.45). Moreover, the obtained data indicated a low correlation (0.014) between the severity of drug tendency and personality traits, according to PID-5.

The current study results revealed that drug use tendency is significantly associated with personality traits. Among the maladaptive traits, antagonism had the highest correlation with drug use (0.45). Moreover, the obtained data indicated a low correlation (0.014) between the severity of drug tendency and personality traits, according to PID-5.