Comorbid disorders associated with adverse childhood experience in substance users

Background. For patients with alcohol or drug use problems, there is a proven link between dissociative and affective-cognitive disorders and adverse traumatic experiences in childhood. Study aim. Analysis of the severity of dissociative disorders, post-traumatic cluster disorders, depressive and alexithymic disorders in patients dependent on psychoactive substances, and determination/assessment of the correlations with factors of adverse childhood events. Materials and Methods. The total number of study participants was 402 individuals (293 males and 109 females). Standardized psychometric scales were used: International Childhood Adverse Experience Questionnaire (WHO ACE-IQ, 2009), Traumatic Event Impact Scale (IES-R), Dissociation Scale (DES), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-twenty). Statistical processing was carried out using the SPSS-20v program. Results. Statistically significant differences were found between the group of intact unfavorable childhood experiences and all respondents who had childhood psychotrauma in terms of traumatic experience and depression, but not alexithymic and dissociative disorders. The strongest associations were found between dissociative experiences, symptoms of the post-traumatic cluster and factors of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; between depressive disorders and family dysfunction factors; between alexithymic disorders and factors of collective, social and emotional abuse, neglect. Conclusion. Dissociative, depressive disorders and manifestations of alexithymia are typical for substrance users, regardless of the intensity of childhood adverse experiences; the traumatic events of childhood that have been suffered contribute to the greater severity of these disorders.