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Tittle: Correlation between antisocial personality disorder symptoms, alcohol use, and treatment of alcohol use disorder

Topic: What is the correlation between antisocial personality disorder symptoms, alcohol use and alcohol use disorder treatment

Thesis: Alcohol dependence may exacerbate a subset of symptoms and how these symptoms affect treatment of alcohol use disorders

The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the negative outcomes of individuals who have antisocial personality disorder (APD) and have had substance use disorders, specifically alcohol, which exacerbates APD typical symptoms. Symptoms such as aggressiveness and impulsivity associated with APD and, will be discussed, Further looking into how APD traits affect treatment of alcohol disorders specifically looking at psycho-education and the structure of alcohol-drug treatment programs.

Based on my search of ProQuest and PubMed and PsycINFO on Jun 8-12^, 2019, I located 6 articles relevant to my topic. First, I found 2 articles on the affects of alcohol with individuals who have ASD and how aggressiveness is impacted (Quigley & Houston, 2018) (Moeller, Dougherty, Lane, Steinberg, Cherek, 1998). Second, I located two articles on how impulsivity is affected by alcohol consumption in individuals who have APD (Berman et al., 2009) (Whiteside & Lynam, 2009). Lastly, I identified 2 articles on how APD traits affect treatment of alcohol disorders including psycho-education and the structure of alcohol-drug treatment programs (Thylstrup & Schrøder, 2015) (Thuras & Westermeyer, 2005)

A)    Effects of alcohol on specific symptoms

1) Aggressiveness

This study looked at a multiple-threshold model, findings specifically for APD symptoms showed that carrying out physical aggression was related to minority status, number of alcohol use and APD symptoms; although there was no interactions specifically related to physical aggression, victimization and injury were related to interactions with alcohol use

The study found that patients who had APD had a greater increase in aggressive responding after alcohol compared to those without APD using the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm. Although they did not find a difference between the groups in monetary-reinforced responding.

2) Impulsivity/risk taking

This study used multiple-regression analyses and demonstrated that certain drinking variables and APD were predictors of frontal system and affective abnormalities.

The results of the present study indicate that alcohol use is associated with impulsive behaviour personality traits.

B)    How does APD traits affect treatment of alcohol use disorders

1) Psycho-educational intervention

This study examined the effectiveness of providing psycho-education for APD in community substance use disorder treatment centers using TAU and ILC treatment interventions. Demonstrating that the ILC program increased the efficacy of treatment for substance use disorder for patients with comorbid ASPD while TAU showed no significant differences between groups.

2) Treatment indicators and motivational interview

This article showed that types and numbers of substance use disorder diagnoses showed no difference however treatment indicators such as lifetime number of admissions, days and cost of care were higher in people with antisocial personality disorder

References

• Berman, O. M., Valmas, M. M., Sawyer, K. S., Kirkley, M. S., Gansler, A. D., Merritt, D., Couture, A. (2009). Frontal brain dysfunction in alcoholism with and without antisocial personality disorder. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 5, 309-326. Retrieved from: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699656/
• Moeller, F. G., Dougherty, D. M., Lane, S. D., Steinberg, J. L., & Cherek, D. R. (1998). Antisocial personality disorder and alcohol-induced aggression. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 22(9), 1898-1902. doi://dx.doi.org.cat1.lib.trentu.ca:8080/10.1111/j.1530-0277.1998.tb05896.x
• Quigley, M. B., & Houston, J. R. (2018). Alcohol use moderates the relationship between symptoms of mental illness and aggression. Psychology Of Addictive Behaviours, 32(7), 770-778. doi: //dx.doi.org/10.1037/adb0000390
• Thylstrup, B., Schrøder, S., Hesse, M. (2015). Psycho-education for substance use and antisocial personality disorder: a randomized trial. BMC Psychiatry, 15, 283. doi: 10.1186/s12888-015-0661-0
• Westermeyer, J., & Thuras, P. (2005). Association of antisocial personality disorder and substance disorder morbidity in a clinical sample. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 31(1), 93-110. doi:10.1081/ADA-47895
• Whiteside, S. P., & Lynam, D. R. (2009). Understanding the role of impulsivity and externalizing psychopathology in alcohol abuse: Application of the UPPS impulsive behavior scale. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, S(1), 69-79. doi://dx.doi.org.cat1.lib.trentu.ca:8080/10.1037/1949-2715.S.1.69