Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Score as a Predictor of Addiction Potential in Youth

Background: Drug abuse causes various societal problems, including decline in public health, increase in mortality, social and domestic traumas, loss of educational and occupational opportunities, increase in involvement with the judicial system, and development of drug abuse cycles. The tendency to use drugs is directly related to the attitudes of the individuals regarding the legality and the scale of social acceptance of drug use, the harm resulting from drug use, or the pleasant consequences of using drugs.

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to predict the psychological inclination to drug use in youths by studying their personality traits.

Patients and Methods: The research sample included students of the Medical Science University, Zahedan, Iran, with an average age of 1924 years. Participants were selected by probability proportional cluster random sampling. The instruments were the Addiction Potential Scale (APS) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The hypotheses were tested using the Pearson correlation method and regression analysis.

Results: Addiction potential was positively related to personality characteristics. We found that those with the highest addiction potential (47%) exhibited the following 3 traits: characteristics of schizophrenia, psychological exhaustion, and depression.

Conclusions: There were no significant differences in the addiction potential among the students with respect to grade, field of study, age, or gender.