Personality Factors in Prison Volunteers Related to Response in Clinical Drug Trials

¹ Department of Medical Pharmacology, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Nutley, N.J.
² Deer Lodge Research Unit, Deer Lodge, Mont.
³ Research Statistics Section, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Nutley, N.J.

Environmental and personality factors exist which make a prison volunteer group distinct from the general public. Our approach to this problem was to identify the differences if possible and then attempt to determine whether these differences affected reaction to trial medication.

Utilizing the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the personality profile of the prisoner volunteers at Montana State Prison was identified and compared with reported profiles from other prison groups and from other population groups. Abnormal scores occurred predominantly in the psychosociopathic, hypomanic, and schizoid behavior scales. Several observers have reported that individuals with high scores in the above scales tend to underreact in drug trials, i.e., they suppress drug effects consciously or unconsciously.

Based on a specific experiment designed to test response to drugs, we concluded that the volunteer group at Montana State Prison did not tend to underreact and that the data derived from this group, particularly in the area of drug tolerance, is reliable in well-designed, care fully conducted trials.

Personality and behavior patterns have important influences on clinical investigation. Careful consideration of these factors must be made particularly when study samples differ from the general population.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?