title: Validity of a gambling scale for the addiction severity index.
abstract: This study assessed the validity of an adaptation of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) for evaluating severity of gambling problems. Participants (N = 597) from four different populations (pathological gamblers enrolled in a treatment study, pathological gamblers initiating outpatient treatment at a community-based program, frequent gamblers recruited from advertisement, and substance abusers) completed the ASI, along with a supplemental gambling subscale (ASI-G). Internal consistency of the ASI-G was good (alpha =.90), and a principal components analysis indicated a single factor explained 73% of the variance in responses. ASI-G scores demonstrated excellent convergent validity with other measures of gambling and convergent validity with external sources, including collateral informant and clinician-rated reports. ASI-G scores discriminated among the samples tested. Temporal stability of ASI-G scores was high during a 1-month period for patients with substance abuse disorder who were not seeking gambling treatment. For treatment-seeking gamblers, the number of treatment sessions attended was significantly associated with reductions in ASI-G scores. Together, these data suggest that the ASI-G subscale may be a useful tool for assessing severity of gambling problems in a variety of populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, Connecticut 06030-3944, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Petry
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires