Author(s): Filipa Novais, Samuel Pombo and Fatima Ismail
Objective: The simultaneous use of several licit and illicit psychoactive substances is highly common among patients with mental health disorders. Relatively few studies have investigated the role of personality in the different patterns of multiple substance use among alcohol dependents. The authors aimed to access the association of several clinical, socio-demographic and personality predictors of nicotine and multiple substance use in alcohol dependents.
Method: A sample of 178 alcohol-dependent patients was eligible for this study. The profiles of 3 groups of alcohol-dependent patients were compared: 1. alcohol dependents without nicotine use or other substances (“pure” alcohol-dependents; PAD); 2. alcohol-dependent smokers (ADS) without substances use and 3. alcohol-dependents with the use of multiple substances (ADMS).
Results: Multiple regression analysis showed that age, educational background, occupational status, years of alcoholism and the personality trait of openness to experience were predictors of Multiple Substance Use (MSU) in alcohol dependent outpatients. Results of the mediation analyses/multivariate regression modelling using bootstrapping method confirmed the mediation role of educational level in the relation between openness to experience and substance use.
Conclusion: In alcohol dependents, as in the general population, the personality trait openness to experience may constitute a vulnerability factor associated with polydrug use.
