Psychopathology in opioid addicts.
Psychopathology has been assessed in opiate addicts using both symptom rating scales and diagnostic impressions. The authors present a study of diagnoses among 533 addicts seeking treatment and show high rates of depression, alcoholism, and antisocial personality disorder. Depressive disorders are associated with poor social functioning in a wide variety of areas. The longitudinal course of depression in addicts is to generally resolve within 6 months without specific treatments, with only 2 per cent of addicts being currently depressed at both intake and 6-month follow-up. The high prevalence (74 per cent lifetime rate of affective disorders in addicts) and transient nature of affective disorders among addicts suggests that short-term crisis treatments to deal with their large number of recent life events would be helpful.
D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D009289:Narcissism; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology