Cerebral edema in drug addicts
Background/Aim. The effect of drugs leaves permanent consequences on the brain, organic in type, followed by numerous manifestations, and it significantly affects the development of mental dysfunctions. The clinicians are often given a task to estimate a patient’s personality during treatme...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, University of Defence, Belgrade
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Vojnosanitetski Pregled |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0042-8450/2014/0042-84501406554D.pdf |
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| Summary: | Background/Aim. The effect of drugs leaves permanent consequences on the
brain, organic in type, followed by numerous manifestations, and it
significantly affects the development of mental dysfunctions. The clinicians
are often given a task to estimate a patient’s personality during treatment
or during experts estimate of a drug addict. The aim of this research was to
determine the differences, if any, in characteristics of addicts experience
and personality traits in drug addicts with or without cerebral edema.
Methods. The research was conducted on a sample of 252 male drug addicts, the
average age of 23.3 (SD = 4.3) years. Cerebral edema was confirmed on
magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain performed during the treatment of
the addicts. The participants were tested by the psychologists using
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-201) test, and the data
were processed using canonical discriminate analysis within the SPSS program.
The dependent variable in the study was cerebral edema. A block of
independent variables, designed for the requirements of this study, consisted
of two subgroups. The first one consisted of 12 variables describing the
relevant characteristics of drug abuse. The second subgroup consisted of 8
psychopathological tendencies in the personality defined by the mentioned
test. Results. Cerebral edema was confirmed in 52 (20.63%) of the drug
addicts. The differences between the groups of drug addicts with and without
cerebral edema were determined in the following: the time span of taking
drugs (0.301), use of alcohol parallel with drugs (0.466), and treatment for
addiction (0.603). In the drug addicts with a cerebral edema, MMPI-201
confirmed the increase in the scales for hypochondria, psychopathic
deviations and psychastenia, and the decrease in the scales for schizophrenia
and depression. Conclusion. Our study confirmed a possible connection between
cerebral edema and personality traits in a number of the examined drug
addicts. Considering the fact that practice often requires personality
estimation, regardless whether it is about treatment or expert’s estimate, it
is necessary to further research in this direction. |
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| ISSN: | 0042-8450 |