Alcoholics and opiate addicts. Comparison of personality characteristics.

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Abstract
The MMPI [Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory] profiles of 175 alcoholics (men, mean age 44; 32 blacks) were compared with those of 125 heroin addicts (men, mean age 25; 52 blacks). Both groups had a mean educational level of 11 yr and were evaluated at admission to corresponding treatment programs in Charleston, South Carolina [USA]. All men reported 2 or more years of continuous drug or alcohol use. The alcoholics and heroin addicts shared marked tendencies toward behavioral and cognitive nonconformity, or common elevations on the Pd (psychopathic deviance) scale. Compared with the heroin addicts, the alcoholics scored significantly higher on the Hs (hypochondriasis), D (depression), Hy (hysteria), A (anxiety) and MacAndrew Alcoholism (MAC) Scales and lower on the K (defensiveness), Ma (activity) and Es (ego strength) scales. These differences were statistically significant when the effects of age, race and education were controlled, but scores on neither the traditional MMPI scales nor the MAC scale were especially effective in predicting group membership by discriminant function analysis. Age was the most critical factor in differentiating between the groups.