Personality Disorder Diagnosis in Substance Dependent Women in Iran : Relationship to childhood Maltreatment

Objective: Few studies have examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment and personality disorder in later years of the childrenʹs life especially in Eastern Mediterranean countries . This study was conducted to explore the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and personality disorder during their later years of life in an Iranian sample. A cross sectional study was conducted in Kerman , a city in South East of Iran in 2005 . Method: Cases were 148 substances dependent women who were admitted in Shahid Beheshti hospital and women who were in Kermanʹs prison for detoxification. With emphasis on confidentiality and obtaining oral consent, we asked the subjects to fill out a questionnaire which included demographic variables and 27 questions concerning all types of abuse , neglect and household dysfunction . Using multivariate Logistic regression, the association between baseline characteristics, childhood maltreatment and household dysfunction variables and personality disorder were analyzed . Results: The mean age of the cases was 33.13 ± 10.94, and borderline personality disorder (24.3%) was the most frequent type of personality disorder in this sample. Physical abuse (45.4%) , emotional abuse (36.2%) and emotional neglect (92.1%) were the most frequent type of maltreatment. While dependency was considered as an independent variable, with logistic regression analysis, sexual abuse was the only type of childhood maltreatment which showed statistically significant association with personality disorder . Conclusion: There was a statistically significant association between increased prevalence of severe personality disturbances among those experiencing multiple types of abuse and neglect .Such studies are important for a more complete understanding of these problems and for practical efforts to alleviate them .