Hot-headed or impulsive?

A sample of men in prison was interviewed and rated for the presence of six behaviours commonly thought to be impulsive: alcohol abuse (CAGE positive), sedative dependence, other drug abuse, pathological gambling, repeated aggression and self‐harm. They were also asked to complete the EPQ and 15 questionnaires. Out of 61 men on a special protection, wing, 51 agreed to take part. We found that the score on the Impulsiveness scale of the 15 correlated with the number of disorders present in individuals, even when corrected for age. Pathological gambling and self‐harm did not correlate with the presence of any of the other behaviours.