[The Denial and Awareness Scale (DAS)].
Focusing on denial of drinking problems and raising awareness are two important treatment tasks at the initial stage of alcoholism treatment. However, an objective and clinically practical measure to assess patients' and family members' denial and awareness of alcohol-related problems has not yet been available. The DAS (Denial and Awareness Scale by Aro Ino and Shigeo Tatsuki) was developed in order to predict prognosis and evaluate treatment outcomes of alcoholism patients. The preliminary (DAS-1) patient scale was administered to 370 alcoholism patients. Their family members responded to the DAS-1 family member subscales. The abstinence period was then triangulated among the patient, a family member, and treatment staff members. For the purpose of the current study, 218 responses were used for item analyses and prediction of abstinence periods. Stepwise regression analyses of preliminary (DAS-1) sub-scales demonstrated that several sub-scales significantly predicted abstinence periods. After factor-analytic item re-classification of DAS-I items, DAS-2 was constructed. DAS-2 sub-scales were then regressed onto abstinence periods by a backward stepwise regression method. The analysis using the entire complete sample (N = 189) where both patients and their family members' responses were available demonstrated significantly that "Patient's Awareness" increased abstinence periods while "Family Troubled Feelings" decreased it, and that "Patient's Awareness" also galvanized "Changes in Patient's Mindset". Additional analyses were conducted in order to examine if predictive values of DAS-2 subscales differ according to varying stages of abstinence periods among the study subjects. The results showed that different sets of subscales predicted the abstinence periods depending on the treatment stages, i.e., abstinence within 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and 4 years. These findings corresponded with the authors' clinical experiences. The current study produced several regression prediction equations utilizing the DAS-2. Further evaluation studies shall examine the effectiveness of the DAS-based prediction/prognosis of the abstinence period of alcoholism patients.
Ino
A
A
Mental Care Center, Prefecture of Mie, 1-12-1 Shiroyama, Tsu-City, Mie 514-0818, Japan.
Tatsuki
S
S
Nishikawa
K
K
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D001364:Awareness; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013695:Temperance; D013997:Time Factors