Temperament, character, and dissociation among detoxified male inpatients with alcohol dependency


Evren C., Sar V., Dalbudak E.

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol.64, no.6, pp.717-727, 2008 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 64 Issue: 6
  • Publication Date: 2008
  • Doi Number: 10.1002/jclp.20485
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.717-727
  • Istanbul University Affiliated: No

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine possible relationships of pathological dissociation with temperament, character, and concurrent psychopathological features in a consecutive series of male alcohol-dependent patients. Fifty-eight patients with pathological dissociation were compared with 118 nondissociative patients classified by dissociative taxon membership. Beside higher scores on anxiety, depression, and alcoholism scales, a larger proportion of dissociative group reported childhood abuse, suicide attempts, and self-mutilation than did the nondissociative group. They also had higher scores of novelty seeking and harm avoidance, but lower scores of persistence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness. Trait anxiety, depression, and severity of alcoholism predicted dissociative experiences; however, none of the temperament or character measures did. Rather than being a derivative of temperament or character features, dissociative experiences of male alcohol-dependent patients are associated with overall concurrent psychopathology. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.