title: Performance of a new substance dependence screening questionnaire (SDSQ) in a non-clinical population.
abstract: Little research has been done on the development of brief screening instruments for the identification of persons meeting diagnostic criteria for drug dependence in non-clinical populations. In the work described in this paper, a new instrument, the Substance Dependence Screening Questionnaire (SDSQ), was drawn up and administered by interviewers to 554 subjects aged 18-34 years (65.9% women), and its results were compared with the diagnoses arrived at by expert clinicians using the Structured Clinical Interview of DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (Clinician Version) (SCID-CV). The SDSQ exhibited satisfactory agreement with SCID-CV (kappa=0.904), and had a sensitivity of 0.914, a specificity of 0.990, positive and negative predictive values of 0.914 and 0.990, respectively, and positive and negative likelihood ratios of 90.65 and 0.087, respectively, for SCID-CV-diagnosed drug dependence. These results suggest that the new instrument may, as intended, prove useful for screening for substance dependence in non-clinical populations.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología Clínica y Psicobiología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Campus Universitario Sur, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. pcfer@usc.es
authors.forename: Fernando L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Vázquez
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*