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

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.