Stable self-serving personality traits in recreational and dependent cocaine users

Chronic cocaine use has been associated with impairments in social cognition, self-serving and antisocial behavior, and socially relevant personality disorders (PD). Despite the apparent relationship between Machiavellianism and stimulant use, no study has explicitly examined this personality concep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-03, Vol.12 (3), p.e0172853-e0172853
Main Authors: Quednow, Boris B, Hulka, Lea M, Preller, Katrin H, Baumgartner, Markus R, Eisenegger, Christoph, Vonmoos, Matthias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addiction
Addictions
Addictive behaviors
Adult
Alcohol
Attitudes
Behavior disorders
Biology and Life Sciences
Cocaine
Cocaine abuse
Cocaine-Related Disorders - psychology
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Computer and Information Sciences
Correlation analysis
Drug abuse
Drug abusers
Ecstasy
Emotional behavior
Female
Hair
Hair analysis
Health aspects
Hospitals
Humans
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mental disorders
Narcotics
Personality
Personality traits
Physical Sciences
Psychiatry
Psychological aspects
Psychotherapy
Reinforcement
Social behavior
Social interactions
Social networks
Social Sciences
Studies
Young Adult
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Summary:Chronic cocaine use has been associated with impairments in social cognition, self-serving and antisocial behavior, and socially relevant personality disorders (PD). Despite the apparent relationship between Machiavellianism and stimulant use, no study has explicitly examined this personality concept in cocaine users so far. In the frame of the longitudinal Zurich Cocaine Cognition Study, the Machiavellianism Questionnaire (MACH-IV) was assessed in 68 recreational and 30 dependent cocaine users as well as in 68 psychostimulant-naïve controls at baseline. Additionally, three closely related personality dimensions from the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI)-cooperativeness, (social) reward dependence, and self-directedness-and the screening questionnaire of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II) were acquired. At the one-year follow-up, 57 cocaine users and 48 controls were reassessed with the MACH-IV. Finally, MACH-IV scores were correlated with measures of social cognition and interaction (cognitive/emotional empathy, Theory-of-Mind, prosocial behavior) and with SCID-II PD scores assessed at baseline. Both recreational and dependent cocaine users showed significantly higher Machiavellianism than controls, while dependent cocaine users additionally displayed significantly lower levels of TCI cooperativeness and self-directedness. During the one-year interval, MACH-IV scores showed high test-retest reliability and also the significant gap between cocaine users and controls remained. Moreover, in cocaine users, higher Machiavellianism correlated significantly with lower levels of cooperativeness and self-directedness, with less prosocial behavior, and with higher cluster B PD scores. However, Machiavellianism was not correlated with measures of cocaine use severity (r
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0172853