title: Personality disorders and psychosocial problems in a group of participants to therapeutic processes for people with severe social disabilities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Homeless people have high dropout rates when they participate in therapeutic processes. The causes of this failure are not always known. This study investigates whether dropping-out is mediated by personality disorders or whether psychosocial problems are more important.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-nine homeless people in a socio-laboral integration process were assessed. An initial interview was used, and the MCMI II questionnaire was applied to investigate the presence of psychosocial disorders (DSM-IV-TR axis IV). This was designed as an ex post-facto prospective study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Personality disorders were very frequent among the homeless people examined. Moreover, the high index of psychosocial problems (axis IV) in this population supported the proposal that axis IV disorders are influential in failure to complete therapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The outcomes of the study show that the homeless people examined presented with more psychopathological symptoms, in both axis II and axis IV, than the general population. This supports the need to take into account the comorbidity between these two types of disorder among homeless people, in treatment and in the development of specific intervention programs. In conclusion, the need for more psychosocial treatments addressing the individual problems of homeless people is supported.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Psychology and Sociology, Education Faculty, Zaragoza University, C/San Juan Bosco 7, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain. salavera@unizar.es
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Salavera
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tricás
authors.forename: Orosia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lucha
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012940:Social Problems