The distinction between prealcoholic personality traits and clinical personality traits proposed by Gordon Barnes (1979) was a critical one in the history of research on personality and AUDs. Barnes noted that many traits associated with clinical alcoholism (at that time typically assessed via the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI]; Hathaway & McKinley, 1940) tended to change over the course of recovery and often differed from traits identified in prospective studies (e.g., Jones, 1968; Jones, 1971) and follow-back studies (e.g., Hoffman, Loper, & Kammeier, 1974). As noted by Sher et al., (1999), there is now a strong database demonstrating significant prediction of future alcohol (and other drug) problems, especially traits related to behavioral disinhibition and, to a lesser extent, neuroticism.
