title: Validation of the "problematic use of narcotics" (PUN) screening test for drug using adolescents.
abstract: The aim of the study was to examine psychometric properties of the PUN screening test concerning illicit drug problem use by adolescents. The criterion standard for the test's validity was a diagnostic interview conducted by trained specialists. Respondents were reached by snowball sampling in 58 randomly chosen Polish local communities. A total of 1344 adolescent (37% female) aged 13 to 18 years, who used any illicit drug at least once in the past 12 months, participated. The majority (89%) had no contacts with any drug therapy facilities. 41% were diagnosed as occasional drug users and 59% as problematic users or dependents. Logistic regression analysis showed that 10 out of the basic set of 25 test items were most powerful in differentiating occasional and problematic users. A test score of 2 or higher was optimal for identifying problem drug use (sensitivity: 0.88, specificity: 0.79, PPV: 0.86, NPV: 0.81). Validity was not affected by age or sex. These results confirmed the PUN test potential as a brief screening tool.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Sobieskiego 9 str. 02-957 Warsaw, Poland. kokulicz@ipin.edu.pl
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okulicz-Kozaryn
authors.forename: Janusz
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sierosławski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*