Psychoneurotic and Psychopathic Personalities of Polydrug Abusers and Effects of Didactic Instruction

Abstract

An investigation into the use of psychometric assessment instruments to produce psychographic profiles which proved superior to the use of individual measures on drug accepting versus drug rejecting age generational gaps is appropriate when considering drug and alcohol education programs. Clinical studies show that polydrug abusers have many psychoneurotic and psychopathic traits which can be measured through valid personality tests. Cuevas (1989), employed the Western Personality Inventory (Manson 1963) to identify individuals whose behavior and personality structure indicated they were polydrug users or had serious polydrug problems. The instrument revealed that a combinative process utilizing comparison groups from known polydrug abusers as a discriminant analysis technique with controls provided a high degree of accuracy. A high degree of precision in prediction was maintained in validation trials on independent samples. The personality characteristics and traits were extracted from a combination of commonly ordered personality tests. Results of the investigation indicate that clinical usage of the screening procedure is readily available without sophisticated computer support or the need for trained psychometricians. Additional results identified the process as interventive, therefore providing a simple way to produce early didactic preventive instruction.