Psychological diagnostics of predisposition to addictive behaviour

Abstract

Multidimensional manifestations of addictive behaviour complicate the possibility of its prevention. The purpose of our research is to determine the parameters diagnosing a person's predisposition to psychotropic substance use. We take as a point of departure the assumption that there are psychological peculiarities that are a kind of "weak link". Namely, these peculiarities determine the desire to change a person’s emotional state artificially. The experimental study of the parameters diagnosing predisposition to addictive behaviour has been performed by us for 15 years. Three groups with 90–100 adolescents in each were studied: well socially adapted adolescents – a "normative" group; socially maladapted adolescents who, however, did not use psychotropic substances; adolescents using psychotropic substances episodically. The study results show that the desire to use psychotropic substances is a symptom of a more general personal ill-being. Neutralization of negative personal formations prevents appearance of psychological readiness for psychotropic substance use.