Personality factors have been identified as robust risk factors for substance use disorders and have been shown to mediate the genetic predisposition to substance misuse and predict patterns of psychiatric comorbidity and patterns of substance misuse (see [4•] for review). Inspired by these findings, the personality-targeted approach to substance use prevention and brief intervention offers a novel strategy for intervening on risk factors for substance misuse and offers many advantages over more traditional universal prevention or generic intervention approaches targeting substance use behaviours more directly. The current review provides an overview of current practices and empirical findings on personality-targeted interventions for substance misuse, as well as a brief overview of the literature linking personality factors to substance use risk, which is also addressed in more detail in previous publications [4•, 5•].
