Premium
Pharmacological Treatment for Antisocial Personality Disorder Alcoholics: A Preliminary Study
Author(s) -
Penick Elizabeth C.,
Powell Barbara J.,
Campbell Jan,
Liskow Barry I.,
Nickel Elizabeth J.,
Dale Tamara M.,
Thomas H. Mikel,
Laster Louise J.,
Noble Elizabeth
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1996.tb01078.x
Subject(s) - mood , anxiety , placebo , psychology , psychiatry , clinical psychology , antisocial personality disorder , antidepressant , personality , medicine , poison control , injury prevention , social psychology , alternative medicine , pathology , environmental health
A short time ago, we reported that a subgroup of hospitalized alcoholic men with comorbid antisocial personality disorder (ASP) seemed to benefit significantly from antidepressant medication at the end of a 6‐month period in a double‐blind, random assignment, placebo‐controlled study. In a reanalysis of those data, we divided the ASP alcoholic group ( n = 29) into those who did ( n = 15) and who did not ( n = 14) also satisfy DSM‐III‐R criteria for an additional current mood and/or anxiety disorder and then compared the 6‐month outcomes of these two smaller subgroups. Despite the small ns, the results for most drinking outcome measures indicated: (1) that ASP alcoholics with a current mood/anxiety disorder improved significantly more with pharmacological treatment, relative to placebo; and (2) that ASP alcoholics with no current mood/anxiety disorder failed to respond differentially to pharmacological treatment over the 6‐month period. These findings suggest a possibly useful and inexpensive approach to the long‐term management of a very difficult‐to‐treat subgroup of men substance abusers.