Quality of life in substance abusers ; impact of personality disorders

Abstract EN

The subjective sense of well being is central to the concept of quality of life (QoL) and a good QoL should be the ultimate goal to any therapeutic measure.

Quality of life and disability are important indices that may help change the perception, treatment and care of those with alcohol or drug dependence problem.

The essential objective of this study is to investigate the impact of personality disorders (PD) on the quality of life in a sample of substance use disorder (SUD) patients.

Methods: a cross-sectional study, 32 patients were included selected from inpatient addiction unit at the Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, fulfilling the diagnosis of substance use disorder according to DSM-IV classification.

They were assessed by; Semi structured psychiatric interview sheet of institute of Psychiatry Ain Shams University, and were subjected to: 1) PCASEE questionnaire for quality of life, 2) Addiction severity index (ASI), and 3) Structured clinical interview for DSM IV, for axis II personality disorder (SCID II).

Results: Statistical analysis of the data was conducted.

Regarding sociodemographic data it was found that the marital status, employment were significantly and highly significantly related to subjective QoL of patients respectively.

In addition, patients who have mixed and multiple PD were significantly related to lower QoL.

Moreover, depressive, histrionic and borderline personalities were significantly related to lower QoL.

Regarding the severity profile measured by ASI; drug, legal and psychiatric profiles were significantly related to QoL of patients.

Conclusion: We concluded that patients with co morbid PD suffer from poorer QoL as well as more complications.