Psychopathological Features and Drop-Out Predictors in a Sample of Individuals with Substance Use Disorder Under Residential Community Treatment

OBJECTIVE: Several studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between addiction and crimes, but little is known about the treatment of individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) with criminal records. This study aimed to assess the treatment progress of a group of individuals with SUD who underwent treatment within a residential community, and to analyze their personality profiles to identify drop-out predictors. METHOD: We evaluated 49 subjects using the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), the Psychological Treatment Inventory (PTI), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and carrying out various statistical analyses, including the t-test, Cohen’s d, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and discriminant analysis. RESULTS: Results are discussed within the context of previous studies on this topic. Our results showed that variables such impulsiveness, cold-heartedness, alexithymia, and psychopathic traits influenced the premature treatment abandonment of individuals with SUD and criminal records. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a further piece for the understanding of subjects with SUD and criminal records, suggesting the importance of a psychodynamic integrated approach, and showing the impact of some psychopathological features on treatment drop-out.