The personality traits and social characteristics of Croatian heroin addicts and cannabis users

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in social characteristics (level of education, working and family status, and criminal record) between heroin addicts, cannabis users and a control group. Additional goal was to explore the possibility of discerning subjects of different addiction status (of both gender) based on their scores on Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). In comparison to the control group, heroin addicts and cannabis users had lower level of education, were more frequently unemployed and with criminal record, and more often came from dysfunctional families. In cannabis users the frequency of these characteristics was generally lower than in heroin addicts. Proportion of correct classification of subjects in groups of different addiction status based on the EPQ scores was 23.3% for males (higher than by chance alone), and 30% for females.