personality disorder diagnosis in substance - dependent women in iran : relationship to childhood maltreatment

objective : few study have examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment and personality disorder in later life especially in eastern mediterranean countries .the study was conducted to explore the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and personality disorder during later life in an iranian sample . a cross - sectional study was conducted in kerman , a city located in east  sourthern of iran in 2005 .  method : cases were 148 substance - dependent  women admitted in shahid beheshti hospital and also kerman women prison  for detoxification.with emphasizing  the confidentiality and obtaining oral consent the subjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire including demographic variables and 27 questions concerning all types of abuse , neglect and household dysfunction . using multivariate logistic regression the associations between baseline characteristics , childhood maltreatment and household dysfunction variables and  personality disorder were analyzed  .  results : the mean age of cases was 33.13 ± 10.94 and borderline personality disorder (24.3%) was the most frequent type of personality disorder in this   sample . physical abuse (45.4%) and emotional abuse (36.2%) and emotional   neglect (92.1%) were the most frequent type of maltreatment .  while dependency considered as independent variable , with logistic  regression analysis, sexual abuse was the only type of childhood maltreatment which showed significant association statistically with personality disorder . (p - value < 0/05)  conclusion: there was significant association statistically between increased prevalence of severe personality disturbances among those experiencing multiple types of abuse  and neglect .such studies are important for a more complete  understanding  of these problems and for practical  efforts to alleviate them.