title: A comparison of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale for "heavy drinking" with a single item craving measure: construct validity and clinical utility.
abstract: The measurement of alcohol "craving" began with single-item scales. Multifactorial scales developed with the intention to capture more fully the phenomenon of craving. This study examines the construct validity of a multifactorial scale, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale for heavy drinking (Y-BOCS-hd). The study compares its clinical utility with a single item visual-analogue craving scale. The study includes 212 alcohol dependent subjects (127 males, 75 females) undertaking an outpatient treatment program between 1999-2001. Subjects completed the Y-BOCS-hd and a single item visual-analogue scale, in addition to alcohol consumption and dependence severity measures. The Y-BOCS-hd had strong construct validity. Both the visual-analogue alcohol craving scale and Y-BOCS-hd were weakly associated with pretreatment dependence severity. There was a significant association between pretreatment alcohol consumption and the visual-analogue craving scale. Neither craving measure was able to predict total program abstinence or days abstinent. The relationship between obsessive-compulsive behavior in alcohol dependence and craving remains unclear.
authors.affiliation: Alcohol and Drug Assessment Unit, Division of Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, Australia.
authors.forename: Jason P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Connor
authors.forename: Gerald F X
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Feeney
authors.forename: Ross McD
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014796:Visual Perception