title: Validation of the French version of the alcohol, smoking and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) was developed to detect substance use disorders.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the French version of ASSIST in various clinical groups with different levels of substance use.
  
  
  METHODS
  150 subjects were recruited from clients attending primary health care, psychiatric and addiction treatment facilities. Measures included ASSIST, Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-Plus), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Revised Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire-Smoking (RTQ).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Concurrent validity was demonstrated by significant correlations between ASSIST scores and scores from ASI, AUDIT and RTQ, as well as significantly greater ASSIST scores for patients with a MINI-Plus diagnosis of abuse or dependence. The ASSIST questionnaire was found to have high internal consistency for the total substance involvement as well as for specific substance involvement as assessed with Cronbach's α, ranging from 0.74 to 0.93. When possibly computed, ASSIST cutoff scores have interesting sensitivity and specificity for discrimination between use and abuse and between abuse and dependence. The findings demonstrated that the French version of ASSIST is a valid screening test for identifying substance use disorders in various health care settings, including psychiatric settings.
authors.affiliation: Division of Addictology, Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland. riaz.khan @ hcuge.ch
authors.forename: Riaz
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatton
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nallet
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Broers
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thorens
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Achab-Arigo
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Poznyak
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleischmann
authors.forename: Yasser
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Khazaal
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zullino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*