Personality disorders associated with substance use among American and Greek adolescents

A study was conducted to investigate the association between personality disorder (PD) symptomatology and substance use among adolescents in community settings in the United States and Greece. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders and the Adolescent Health Behavior Survey were completed by 37 male and 84 female adolescents, ages 15 to 18, who were recruited from an adolescent medical clinic and schools in and near New York City (n = 71) and Heraklion, Greece (n = 50). Results indicated that: (1) adolescents with PDs reported more frequent alcohol consumption during the past year than did those without PDs; (2) adolescents with borderline PD reported more cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol consumption than did those without borderline PD; (3) adolescents with antisocial PD symptomatology reported greater alcohol, cigarette, and illicit drug use than did those without antisocial PD symptomatology; and (4) although more American (30%) than Greek (4%) adolescents reported illicit substance use, differences were not observed in the prevalence of alcohol use, cigarette use, or personality disorders as a function of nationality.