Personality disorders: Which personality features lead to a comorbid substance use disorder?

Introduction Dual Diagnosis (DD) refers to coexistence of a psychiatric disorder, which is often a Personality Disorder (PD), and a Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Despite DD is a topic of interest in recent years, few studies have focused on the temperament and character traits of PD patients with or without a comorbid SUD. Anyhow, the assessment of personality traits may be helpful to understand the relation among psychiatric disorder, drug use and environment in patients with addictive behaviors. Aims The aim of this study is to compare two subgroups of PD patients, with and without a comorbid SUD. Sociodemographic, clinical and personality profile, as assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory, will be compared. Methods We are recruiting patients with a PD diagnosis referring either the psychiatry ward or outpatient service of the AOU “Maggiore della Carità”, Novara, Italy; secondly, we will group them according to the presence/absence of SUD. Cloninger's TCI-R will be administered together with a structured interview to gather sociodemographic and clinical information. Results Data collection is ongoing; we expect to find a different personality profile in PD and DD Patients. Conclusions Temperament, which is the biological part of the personality, seems to have an important role in addictive behavior; therefore assessing the personality traits of DD patients can help to improve the differential diagnosis and to establish strategies for treatment and prevention. In particular, sensation seeking and impulsivity are temperamental characteristics that may favor SUD in patients with psychiatric disorders.