Personality disorders in substance abusers: validation of the DIP-Q through principal components factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis

The ASRS-6 has two latent factors: attention deficit and hyperactivity

OBJECTIVE

To test whether the adult self-report scale for ADHD, six-items version (ASRS-6), measures inattentiveness and hyperactivity independently.

METHOD

The ASRS-6 was completed by 234 university students and 157 outpatients treated for drug dependence. In both samples, the ASRS-6 was subjected to two confirmatory factor analyses, one testing a one-factor model and the other testing a model with two correlated factors indicating inattentiveness and hyperactivity, respectively. Test-retest reliability of the subscales was tested on a subset of the student sample (n = 25).

RESULTS

In both samples, the one-factor solution did not fit the data, but the two-factor solution fit the data better. Subscales differed in their correlates in ways that mirror the correlates of inattentiveness and hyperactivity in the published literature on ADHD. In the student sample, the test-retest reliability was adequate for hyperactivity (r = .70) and inattentiveness (r = .77).

CONCLUSION

The ASRS-6 measures two correlated constructs, rather than one unitary construct.

Substance abusers' personality disorders and staff members' emotional reactions

BACKGROUND

Previous research has indicated that aggressive behaviour and DSM-IV cluster B personality disorders (PD) may be associated with professionals' emotional reactions to clients, and that cluster C PD may be associated with positive emotional reactions.

METHODS

Staff members recruited from workshops completed a self-report inventory of emotional reactions to patients, the Feeling Word Checklist-58, and substance abusers completed a self-report of DSM-IV personality disorder, the DSM-IV and ICD-10 Personality Disorder Questionnaire. Correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis was used to assess the associations between personality disorders and emotional reations.

RESULTS

Cluster B disorder features were associated with feeling distance to patients, and cluster C disorder features were associated with feeling helpful towards patients. Cluster A disorders had no significant impact on emotional reactions.

CONCLUSION

The findings confirm clinical experiences that personality disorder features in patients with substance abuse have an impact on staff members reactions to them. These reactions should be considered in supervision of staff, and in treatment models for patients with co-morbid personality disorders and substance abuse.

Rating of personality disorder features in popular movie characters

BACKGROUND

Tools for training professionals in rating personality disorders are few. We present one such tool: rating of fictional persons. However, before ratings of fictional persons can be useful, we need to know whether raters get the same results, when rating fictional characters.

METHOD

Psychology students at the University of Copenhagen (N = 8) rated four different movie characters from four movies based on three systems: Global rating scales representing each of the 10 personality disorders in the DSM-IV, a criterion list of all criteria for all DSM-IV personality disorders in random order, and the Ten Item Personality Inventory for rating the five-factor model. Agreement was estimated based on intraclass-correlation.

RESULTS

Agreement for rating scales for personality disorders ranged from 0.04 to 0.54. For personality disorder features based on DSM-IV criteria, agreement ranged from 0.24 to 0.89, and agreement for the five-factor model ranged from 0.05 to 0.88. The largest multivariate effect was observed for criteria count followed by the TIPI, followed by rating scales. Raters experienced personality disorder criteria as the easiest, and global personality disorder scales as the most difficult, but with significant variation between movies.

CONCLUSION

Psychology students with limited or no clinical experience can agree well on the personality traits of movie characters based on watching the movie. Rating movie characters may be a way to practice assessment of personality.