SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS, PERCEIVED CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS, AND PERSONALITY PROFILES OF ALCOHOL AND OPIOID USERS IN SOUTHERN ASSAM

Background:- Substance abuse has been identified as a disorder with multitude of determinants often influencing its development at multiple levels ranging from the psychosocial to the genetic. One prominent among these factors are personality dimensions. There is a dearth of studies on the personality factors associated with substance use, the factors associated with initiation and continuation of substance use in this population. These need to be studied, which should inform any future attempts at preparing strategies at the clinical setting as well as policy making level to deal with this problem.

Methods:- This study was a cross-sectional hospital based study. Forty consecutive patients from each substance use group who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria attending the department were selected as study subjects. Substance abuse disorder was diagnosed in accordance with the International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) diagnostic guidelines. Sixteen personality factor was used to assess the personality traits of the subjects. It comprises of a set of 185 self-scored questions. Originally designed in 1949 by Raymond B. Cattell, Maurice Tatsuoka and Herbert Eber.. Analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics, statistical significance being set at p<0.05. Chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test were used to compare discreet variables and independent samples t-test was used to compare means of continuous variables.

Results:- All the study participants were found to be males. First exposure to alcohol was at a significantly earlier age than to opioid. The opioid abusers were predominantly urban inhabitants while the alcohol users predominantly rural. The alcohol users were predominantly daily wage earners or farmers, while the opioid users were predominantly self-employed individuals. This difference in occupation was found to be highly statistically significant. Unlike perceiving a single factor leading to initiation of substance use, many of the study subjects perceived multiple factors to be at play in the continuation of their substance use. Around 2/3rds of alcohol users cited easy availability of alcohol as a major factor. Avoidance of withdrawal symptoms turned out to be an almost universal factor leading to continuation of opioid use as reported by 95% of the opioid users. It was found that the opioid users scored significantly higher in Reasoning (B), Openness to change (Q1), and Self-reliance (Q2) than the alcohol users. Alcohol users, on the other hand, turned out to score significantly higher in Emotional stability (C), Rule consciousness (G), Abstractedness (M) in comparison to opioid users.

Conclusion:- The alcohol and opioid users perceive peer pressure and own curiosity as the predominant factors leading to initiation of substance use, while citing the stress or withdrawal symptom nullifying effect, pleasure inducing effect, as well as the easy availability of the substances as factors contributing to continuation of substance use. Alcohol users were more conservative, while the opioid users were more non-conformist, skeptical, and solitude seeking.