Citation

Maremmani AGI, Cerniglia L, Cimino S, Bacciardi S, Rovai L, Pallucchini A, Spera V, Perugi G, Maremmani I. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017; 14(8): e14080943.

Affiliation

Vincent P. Dole Dual Diagnosis Unit, Department of Specialty Medicine, Santa Chiara University Hospital, University of Pisa, 56100 Pisa, Italy. icro.maremmani@med.unipi.it.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph14080943

PMID

28825670

PMCID

PMC5580645

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In this study, we used a symptomatology checklist (SCL-90) to substantiate the hypothesis that Substance Use Disorder (SUD) has its own five-dimensional psychopathology. The aim of the present study was to test whether this psychopathology can be differentiated from other psychiatric psychopathological dimensions (such as obesity).

METHODS: The severity and frequency of each of the five dimensions were investigated, at univariate and multivariate levels, by comparing 972 Heroin Use Disorder (HUD) patients (83.5% male, mean age 30.12 ± 6.6, range: 16-59) and 106 obese individuals (50.0% male, mean age 37.59 ± 7.6, range: 24-52). The correlations between the Body Mass Index (BMI) of obese individuals with these psychopathological dimensions were also studied.

RESULTS: Obese individuals showed higher SCL-90 total scores, global severity index scores, number of items rated positively, and positive symptoms distress index scores than HUD patients. The severity of all psychopathological dimensions was significantly higher in obese individuals. Discriminant analysis showed that Panic-Anxiety and Violence-Suicide severity were more frequent in obese patients, sufficiently so to allow differentiation between HUD (lower severity) and obese individuals (greater severity). At the reclassification level, 70.8% of obese individuals in the sample were reclassified as HUD patients. Psychopathological subtypes characterized by Panic-Anxiety and Violence-Suicide typology were more frequent in obese patients and sufficiently so as to discriminate between groups. Of obese patients, 47.2% were reclassified as HUD patients. The severity of the Worthlessness-Being Trapped dimension was sufficient to predict the BMI of obese individuals.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the five-factor psychopathology found in HUD can discriminate between HUD and obese patients, but that there is an area of overlap between the forms of psychopathology found in SUD and those found in obese patients.

Language: en

Keywords

heroin use disorder; obesity; psychopathological dimensions; psychopathology of addiction; substance use disorder