Comparative personality traits of temperament and character, psychopathology, and onset age of smoking in predicting opiate dependence

Introduction: According to drug gateway theory, smoking cigarette, especially, low onset age of smoking, is one of the risk factors for future use. The present study deals with comparison of nicotine addicts and opiate addicts in order to identify that what differences in personality traits and onset age of smoking exist in these two groups that cause some individuals to appeal to other substances after starting to use cigarette. Methods: Two groups of opiate addicts and nicotine addicts were randomly selected. Revised version of Cloninger’s Temperament Inventory Questionnaire, Fagrastrom’s Nicotine Dependence and Maudsley’s Addiction Profile were used. The study length was 10 month. ANOVA and logistic regression were applied for data analysis. Results: Opiate addicts had higher scores in novelty seeking dimension and lower scores in cooperativeness (P= 0/001), compared to nicotine addicts. The onset age of smoking cigarette in opiate addicts was lower than nicotine addicts. Conclusion: Low onset age of smoking cigarette, high novelty seeking and low cooperativeness in opiate dependents are among the important personality traits in future use of drugs that can predict the subsequent start of using opiate drugs. Declaration of Interest: None