Comparison of Personality Traits and Executive Functions (Inhibition and Decision) in Successful and Unsuccessful Drug Users in Quitting Addiction

The present study was conducted to compare personality traits and executive functions (inhibition and decision) in successful and unsuccessful drug users in quitting addiction.

This study was a causal-comparative design. Participants were successful and unsuccessful men and women in quitting drug addiction (narcotics and industry) referring to addiction treatment centers in the eastern region of Tehran. Among them, 110 people were selected by convenience sampling method (55 successful in quitting addiction and 55 unsuccessful in quitting). To collect the data, the five personality traits questionnaire - long form, go/do not go test and Bart balloon risk test were used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, parameters of parametric tests and multivariate analysis of variance.

The results showed that there was no significant difference between successful and unsuccessful individuals to quit addiction in decision (p >0.05). Also, the results showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups of successful and unsuccessful individuals in quitting drugs in terms of cognitive inhibition and personality traits including conscientiousness, acceptability, openness to experience, neuroticism and extraversion (p<0.05). As such, successful people in quitting addiction had better performance and efficiency than unsuccessful people in personality traits and cognitive inhibition, but there was no difference between the decision power in the face of the temptation of consumption between the two groups.

Executive functions and personality traits play a role in ability of individuals to quit and resist the temptation to consume. Therefore, it is suggested that service providers centers in the field of drugs prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of people in the face of drugs, in addition to the usual proceedings, also pay attention to the personality traits and executive functions of individuals.