Substance dependence and personality disorders often co-occur and personality disorders are highly prevalent comorbid conditions among addicted individuals. Early maladaptive schemas contribute to development of personality disorders as well as addictive behaviors.

Examining early maladaptive schemas among addict persons with and without personality disorders.

To determine whether there are particular schemas that are associated with specific personality disorders.

In this cross-sectional study the participants were 100 persons with substance dependence including 84 opioid addicts, 5 cannabis dependents and 11 subjects with methamphetamine dependence. Participants were given the Young Schema Questionnaire-Long Form in order to identify Early Maladaptive Schemas. Furthermore, structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-II) was performed by a trained interviewer to identify personality disorders.

Fifty three percent of participants had borderline personality disorder and the rate of antisocial personality disorder was 14%. Borderline personality disorder was associated with abandonment and Mistrust/Abuse schemas. There was found no significance difference between persons with borderline personality disorder and subjects with antisocial personality disorder in terms of Early maladaptive schemas. Compared to subjects without personality disorder, participants with personality disorder had higher scores of “persormance” and “impaired limits” domains.There was a significant association between educational level and early maladaptive schemas.

People with schema domains of impaired performance and impaired limits may be more likely to develop cluster B personality disorders and this finding is in accordance with the previous study of the authors which showed that these domains of schemas were more prevalent among addict people.