Personality Disorders (DSM-III-R DSM-IV): Prevalence in alcoholics and influence on drop out from treatment

Many questions remain with regard to the relationship between DSM personality disorders (PDs) and substance abuse and dependence as to the potential influence of PDs on treatment outcome. In this study we first examined the prevalence of PDs in a sample of 123 hospitalized alcoholics, using PDQ-R, a self-report questionnaire for Axis II diagnoses. We found a significant prevalence of Cluster B PDs. For a better understanding of the topic, in the second part of our study, we used SCID-II, a semistructured interview according to DSM-IV. With these new data, we investigated the association between PDs and drop out from treatment in a sample of 25 alcoholics. We present some preliminary data which seem to confirm the precious results of the high prevalence of Cluster B PDs in alcoholics and a significant correlation between Cluster B PDs and drop out.