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Personality and substance use disorders in young adults

Health Services Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

CAROLYN COFFEY, BSc Grad Dip Epi

Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

ANTHONY MANN, MD, MPhil, FRCP, FRCPsych

Section of Epidemiology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

JOHN B. CARLIN, PhD

Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

GEORGE C. PATTON, MD, FRANZCP

Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Correspondence: Dr Paul Moran, Health Services Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 7 848 0568; fax: +44 (0)20 7 848 0333; e-mail: paul.moran{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Background There have been no studies of the co-occurrence of personality and substance use disorders in young community-dwelling adults.

Aims To examine the association between DSM–IV personality disorders and substance use disorders in a large representative sample of young community-dwelling participants.

Method Young Australian adults (n=1520, mean age=24.1 years) were interviewed to determine the prevalence of substance use disorders; 1145 also had an assessment for personality disorder.

Results The prevalence of personality disorder was 18.6% (95% CI 16.5–20.7). Personality disorder was associated with indices of social disadvantage and the likely presence of common mental disorders. Independent associations were found between cluster B personality disorders and substance use disorders. There was little evidence for strong confounding or mediating effects of these associations.

Conclusions In young adults, there are independent associations between cluster B personality disorders and substance use disorders.

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