Personality Traits and Impulsivity Tasks Among Substance Use Disorder Patients: Their Relations and Links With Retention in Treatment

Overview

Journal Front Psychiatry

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2020 Oct 26

PMID 33101084

Citations 1

Authors

Jesus Gomez-Bujedo

Oscar M Lozano

Pedro Juan Perez-Moreno

Jose Andres Lorca-Marin

Fermin Fernandez-Calderon

Carmen Diaz-Batanero

Enrique Moraleda-Barreno

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Various authors have described the elements of impulsive approach and inhibitory control in drug users. These two components have been studied in terms of personality traits, performance on tasks that measure impulsive behavior, and neurophysiology. However, few studies have analyzed the association between these constructs. Thus, the aim of the present study is to analyze the associations between personality traits and performance on impulsivity tasks.

Methods: A follow-up study was conducted with a baseline assessment at the beginning and end of treatment. The sample was composed of 121 patients undergoing treatment in therapeutic communities. Personality domains were evaluated through the PID-5. The impulsivity tasks employed were the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Delay Discounting Test (DDT), Go/No-Go and Stroop test.

Results: A correlation was found between DDT scores and the domains of detachment (r = -.315; p<.01), antagonism (r = -.294; p<.01), and disinhibition (r = .215; p<.05). Performance on the Stroop task was significantly associated with psychoticism (r = .232; p<.05) and negative affect (r = .212; p<.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that IGT scores and negative affect predict retention in treatment.

Conclusions: These findings partially support the hypothesized association between sensation-seeking personality traits and detachment with impulsive choice tasks; and the relationships between negative affect and psychoticism traits with performance on inhibitory control tasks. Further, impulsive choice task scores and negative affect are both shown to predict retention in treatment.

Citing Articles

Bridge Nodes between Personality Traits and Alcohol-Use Disorder Criteria: The Relevance of Externalizing Traits of Risk Taking, Callousness, and Irresponsibility.

de la Rosa-Caceres A, Narvaez-Camargo M, Blanc-Molina A, Romero-Perez N, Dacosta-Sanchez D, Gonzalez-Ponce B J Clin Med. 2022; 11(12).

PMID: 35743541 PMC: 9225009. DOI: 10.3390/jcm11123468.

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