| Abstrakt: |
Although the personality correlates of heroin addiction, LSD use, and marijuana ingestion have been frequently investigated, few data are available which describe personality or life-style variables correlated with the pattern of polydrug abuse. Polydrug abuse is characterized by ingestion of drugs from a variety of psychopharmacological categories based largely on the availability of a drug at any given time. A group of 17 polydrug users, identified within a group of 224 young adult male hospitalized veterans, was matched for socioeconomic class and age with 17 controls who reported no experience with drugs of any kind. The two groups were then compared on several personality measures. Polydrug addicts were more neurotic and more candid on the Eysenck Personality Inventory, higher in state anxiety on the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Scale, and higher in sensation seeking as measured by the Zuckerman scale. No differences in dogmatism, ego strength, trait anxiety, extraversion, or fearfulness were found between groups. On the basis of personality characteristics, veterans could be classified into drug-use categories with 97.05% accuracy. |
