ABSTRACT
Objectives of this study are to determine the comparative prevalence of personality disorder in prisoners suffering with substance dependence and to find the relationship of personality disorder (PD) with pattern and severity of substance dependence (SD). Methods: This is a single-blind case controlled design prison hospital based study. A period sample of nineteen months was taken. Convenience samples of first 250 prisoners admitted in de-addiction ward fulfilling study criteria were taken as study participants and equal numbers of inmates were taken as control participants. Main outcome measure of the study was the presence of PD, whether it is related to the psychoactive substance dependence. Results: There was severe substance dependence among PD cases with the severity of dependence scale, SDS score of 10.7 ± 1.7 vs. 9.6 ± 1.3 in those without PD. Difference in duration of substance use of those with and without PD was statistically significant. However, the difference in age of onset of substance use and duration of substance dependence was not statistically significant. Prevalence of personality disorder in study was found to be 40.8% and was significantly higher than in control participants, i.e. 18.4%. Dissocial PD was noted as the most common type of PD in both study and control participants, i.e. 20.8% and 8%, respectively. In study participants, other most common types of PD were borderline, impulsive and anankastic PD at 7.2%, 5.6% 3.2%, respectively. More than 80% study participants were dependent on various types of substance-related use, i.e. alcohol, opioid and cannabis. Frequency of participants with use of greater than two substances at a time was much more common in participants with PD, than in those without a PD. Conclusions: In those prisoners, suffering from SD is usually of severe intensity. Prevalence of PD in prisoners suffering from SD is much higher than in non-SD population. In both groups, dissocial PD is the majority type of PD. Alcohol, cannabis and opioid are most commonly used substance. Prevalence on more than one substance was higher in those participants suffering from PD than those without PD. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 18 (1): January – June 2017: XX XX