Changes in personality and subjective experience associated with the chronic administration and withdrawal of opiates.

Abstract

Fifteen opiate addicts were followed over an addiction cycle at the Addiction Research Center, Lexington, Kentucky, and were tested with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Addiction Research Center Inventory, Personal Inventory, and an appetite rating scale 1) prior to drug administration, 2) after 3.5 months of chronic administration of morphine or heroin when they had been stabilized on the equivalent of 240 mg of morphine per day, and 3) on the 10th day of dose reduction. Euphoria, which was increased after an acute dose of morphine, was reduced to predrug levels during chronic administration, but tolerance failed to develop completely to such symptoms as lowered motivation for activity, constipation, dryness of the skin and appetite for the opiate drug used in the experiment. On the other hand, hypochondriasis (MMPI) increased during the chronic phase but was not evident after a single dose of morphine. Psychopathic traits, believed by many to be exaggerated by opiates, were not increased during acute, chronic or withdrawal phases of the addiction cycle. Many other traits, interestingly, such as acceptability for psychotherapy, were not altered. During withdrawal, neurotic traits such as depression, hypochondriasis, anxiety, and feelings of weakness, sickness and irritability, as well as classically defined withdrawal symptoms were markedly increased. The immediate subjective feeling of usefulness of morphine or heroin for settling symptoms was more highly correlated with the intensity of opiate withdrawal symptoms than with psychopathic traits.