TITLE:
Prolonged Abstinence and Changes in Alcoholic Personality: A NEO PI-R Study
AUTHORS:
Isabelle Boulze, Michel Launay, Bertrand Nalpas
KEYWORDS:
Alcoholism; Neo Pi-R; Personality; Abstinence; Emotional Stability; Relationship to Others
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.4,
March
31,
2014
ABSTRACT: Many
studies have examined the risk factors for relapse in alcohol-dependent
patients within the first year of treatment, and have generally focused on two
personality dimensions: emotional instability and difficulty in establishing
relationships. In this study, we examine if these weaknesses remain in
prolonged alcohol abstinence. To do so, we administer the NEO PI-R to two
groups of subjects. Group 1, Inactive Drinkers (ID), consists of 51 patients
with at least two years of abstinence (average length of abstinence for this
group is 6.2 years); Group 2, Recently Detoxified Drinkers (RDD), comprises 93
patients who have recently ceased consuming alcohol. Based on NEO PI-R scores,
our results evidence that inactive drinkers experience significant reduction in
emotional instability and improvement in relationships to others. We further
observe that, with long-term abstinence, these personality dimensions
normalize, ceasing to be risk factors for relapse. Additionally, we find that
this long-term amelioration of traits altered by alcohol amounts to an improved
behavioral adaptation to life events rather than an actual change in personality.