
Research view
Title: | A study of the personality traits and the level of anxiety in suicidal polydrug users |
Author: | Magda T. Fahmy, Wafaa L. Haggag, Khaled A. Mohamed,Amany A. Baalash |
Abstract: |
Background
Suicidal behavior among substance abusers is common. Despite increasing knowledge about
substance abuse and suicidal behavior, we lack suffi cient knowledge about the characteristic
features of suicidal substance abusers.
Objective
This study aimed to examine the associative characteristics of suicidal thoughts among
polysubstance abusers.
Materials and methods
This was a case–control comparative study on 239 individuals between 18 and 45 years of
age. We reviewed 122 individuals who fulfi lled the DSM-IV-TR criteria of substance abuse for
two or more substances, and their data were compared with that collected from 117 control
persons. Detailed demographic, clinical, and laboratory data of the participants were collected.
They were administered a semistructured psychiatric interview and examination, the Eysenck
Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (Ham-A) on almost the 10th
day after admission (after detoxifi cation).
Results
Suicidal cases formed 64.75% of the polysubstance abusers in our study. The mean score
of Ham-A was 13.71 ± 6.31 for suicidal polydrug abusers, which was signifi cantly the highest
among the groups; 24.1 and 6.3% of the suicidal cases experienced mild to moderate and
moderate to severe anxiety, respectively, whereas the remaining experienced mild symptoms.
Suicidal cases attained signifi cantly higher scores on the psychoticism and lie scale of EPQ
in this study.
Conclusion
A statistically signifi cant relation was found between the suicidality in polysubstance abusers
and a high level of anxiety as assessed by the Ham-A scale and personality traits related to
psychoticism and the lie scale on EPQ.
Keywor ds :
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, polysubstance abuser
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Journal: | Egyptian Journal of Psychiatry 2015, 36:106–111 |
Text: | |
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