Externalising and internalising personality traits are reliably associated with increased susceptibility for substance misuse in youth, with a growing body of evidence suggesting that these traits play a causal role in substance misuse vulnerability. Consequently, these personality profiles have recently become important targets of interventions to reduce such risk. We previously showed that distinct personality traits are related to risk for substance-specific misuse patterns, with impulsivity (IMP) specifically associated with misuse of stimulants (including cocaine and prescription stimulant medications) and sensation seeking (SS) preferentially associated with alcohol and cannabis misuse [20–24]. By contrast, anxiety sensitivity (AS) and hopelessness (HOP) have been shown to be associated with preferential use/misuse of depressant drugs, such as alcohol, sedatives and opioids [23, 25]. These traits also appear to predict different motives for drinking and substance use with SS being consistently associated with enhancement motives for drinking and drug use, AS with coping and conformity motives and HOP with a specific motivation to manage painful emotions and memories [23, 26, 27]. Interestingly, IMP has been shown to be associated with a motivationally undefined pattern of substance use, whereby all drinking and drug use situations (availability) appear to motivate substance use in high-impulsive individuals [23, 26].
