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Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine if personality traits contribute to the likelihood of substance abuse in Bipolar Disorder (BD). SUBJECTS/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-nine patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for BD: 20 without any history of Substance Related Disorder (SRD), 21 with a lifetime history of SRD but without current SRD, and 18 with current SRD. Patients filled out the TCI, the differences were analyzed by ANOVA and the likelihood was obtained by Multinomial Logistic Regression., Results: Only Novelty Seeking (NS) is statistically different between the groups. Patients with BD with current SRD have higher rates in NS than those with past SRD, and those without a history of SRD. NS was confirmed as a predicting variable, both to current SRD (OR [CI 95%]=1.039/1.351; p=0.011) and past SRD (OR [CI 95%]=1.004/1.277; p=0.042) on patients with BD., Discussion: The results shown would appear to confirm the relationship of NS with the SRD, so long as there is no clear evidence that indicates the association of NS with BD., Conclusions: There appears a greater predisposition to develop SRD in those patients with a higher degree of NS. The use of the Cloninger's TCI could be used in BD to determine the risk of developing an SRD. Early detection might help improve prognosis.

A 25-year-old man with a history of Tourette's syndrome presented for treatment of OCD symptoms. Fluvoxamine worsened tics, led to coprolalia, and did not help the OCD. The addition of pimozide dramatically reduced both OCD and Tourette's symptoms. Double-blind sequential discontinuation of fluvoxamine and pimozide confirmed that pimozide alone reduced only tics and the combination of fluvoxamine and pimozide was required for the improvement in OCD. Tics may reflect a subtype of OCD. Some OCD patients unresponsive to a 5-HT reuptake inhibitor alone may benefit from the addition of a dopamine antagonist.