Neurocognitive parameters should be incorporated in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 assessment of patients with alcohol use disorders.

Introduction And Aims: Treatment planning for alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients is often preceded by the assessment of psychopathology and personality with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). However, during periods of abstinence, cognitive impairments (e.g. attention, memory and executive dysfunctions) related to neurological and somatic pathology may affect level and pattern of MMPI-2 scale scores, resulting in clinical misinterpretation.

Design And Methods: A re-analysis of the data of the Egger et al. study is conducted in order to examine the clinical significance of the MMPI-2 profiles of 222 AUD patients (mean age 42.2 ± 9.6 years; 76.6% men) by using neurologically relevant item correction procedures. Hierarchical cluster analyses of neurologically relevant item-corrected solutions were compared to the original MMPI-2 profile.

Results: Impulsiveness and psychopathic deviation were identified as a common denominator.

Discussion And Conclusions: Uncorrected MMPI-2 assessment in AUD tends to overstress psychopathology and to overlook disinhibitory traits in early abstinence, caused by chronic alcoholism.