Dysfunctional parental styles perceived during childhood in outpatients with substance use disorders

Abstract

People who suffer from substance use disorders (SUDs) frequently report to have undergone childhood adversity that is often associated with father or mother dysfunction, or both. Yet that issue has been barely addressed in opiate dependent patients. Therefore we sought to evaluate parent-specific dysfunctional styles perceived during childhood in a clinical sample from an outpatient addiction treatment program using the Measure Of Parental Styles (MOPS) questionnaire. DSM-IV diagnoses of substance use disorders and history of suicide attempts, family structure and changes of caregiver during childhood were obtained from 159 consecutive outpatients, along with their perception of parental bonding with the MOPS, in which mother and father scores are separate. Mother neglect dimension was significantly correlated with an earlier age at onset of several substances' use, the number of prior hospitalizations and of lifetime suicide attempts. Most of these associations remained significant in multivariate models. This was the first assessment of a representative sample of outpatients with SUDs by the MOPS questionnaire. Given its excellent acceptance and its association with several key correlates of SUDs, it should be used to design specific interventions targeted at attachment and familial management as well as in research models on gene×environment interactions.