Personality disorders, and particularly antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), frequently co-occur with alcohol dependence. ASPD is considered to be an important cofactor in the pathogenesis and clinical course of alcohol dependence. The chronological relationship between the onset of symptoms of ASPD and alcohol-dependence characteristics has not yet been studied in great detail and the role of ASID in classification schemes of alcohol dependence as suggested by Cloninger and Schuckit has yet to be determined. We studied 55 alcohol-dependent patients to assess the prevalence and age at manifestation of ASPD, conduct disorder characteristics as well as alcohol dependence by employing the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IIIR. Results indicate that the onset of ASPD characteristics precede that of alcohol dependence by some 4 years. This finding suggests that in patients with ASPD, alcohol dependence might be a secondary syndrome as suggested by previous research. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.