PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

Alcohol use patterns and disorders among individuals with personality disorders in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area.

  • Carolina Hanna Chaim,
  • Geilson Lima Santana,
  • Paula de Vries Albertin,
  • Camila Magalhães Silveira,
  • Erica Rosanna Siu,
  • Maria Carmen Viana,
  • Wang Yuan Pang,
  • Laura Helena Andrade

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248403
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 3
p. e0248403

Abstract

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IntroductionAlcohol Use Disorders are frequently comorbid with personality disorders. However, the heterogeneity of the prevalence estimates is high, and most data come from high income countries. Our aim is to estimate the prevalence and association between alcohol use outcomes and the three DSM-5 clusters of personality disorders in a representative sample of the São Paulo Metropolitan Area.Materials and methodsA representative household sample of 2,942 adults was interviewed using the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview and the International Personality Disorder Examination Screening Questionnaire. Lifetime PD diagnoses were multiply imputed, and AUD diagnoses were obtained using DSM-5 criteria. We conducted cross-tabulations and logistic regression to estimate the associations between AUDs and PDs.Results and discussionOur study did not find significant associations of PDs with heavy drinking patterns or mild AUD. Cluster B PD respondents tended to show the highest conditional prevalence estimates of most alcohol use patterns and AUD, including its severity subtypes. When alcohol outcomes were regressed on all PD Clusters simultaneously, with adjustment for sex and age, only cluster B was significantly associated with past-year alcohol use (OR 3.0), regular drinking (OR 3.2), and AUDs (OR 8.5), especially moderate and severe cases of alcohol use disorders (OR 9.7 and 16.6, respectively). These associations between Cluster B PDs and these alcohol outcomes were shown to be independent of other PD Clusters and individuals´ sex and age.ConclusionThe main finding of our study is that AUDs are highly comorbid with PDs. The presence of Cluster B PDs significantly increases the odds of alcohol consumption and disorders and of more severe forms of AUDs. Considering the local context of poor treatment provision, more specific prevention and intervention strategies should be directed to this population.