Chronological relationship between antisocial personality disorder and alcohol dependence

Personality disorders, and particularly antisocial personality
disorder (ASPD), frequently co-occur with alcohol dependence. ASPD
is considered to be an important cofactor in the pathogenesis and
clinical course of alcohol dependence. The chronological
relationship between the onset of symptoms of ASPD and
alcohol-dependence characteristics has not yet been studied in
great detail and the role of ASID in classification schemes of
alcohol dependence as suggested by Cloninger and Schuckit has yet
to be determined. We studied 55 alcohol-dependent patients to
assess the prevalence and age at manifestation of ASPD, conduct
disorder characteristics as well as alcohol dependence by employing
the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism and
the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IIIR. Results indicate
that the onset of ASPD characteristics precede that of alcohol
dependence by some 4 years. This finding suggests that in patients
with ASPD, alcohol dependence might be a secondary syndrome as
suggested by previous research. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG,
Basel.