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A New Diagnostic Test Proves Reliable

Several tools have been developed in recent years to diagnose a variety of psychiatric disorders, including alcohol and drug dependence. Researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center used individual criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) to assess the  diagnostic reliability of a relatively diagnostic instrument – the Semi-Structured Assessment for Drug Dependence and Alcoholism (SSADDA).

The SSADDA is a comprehensive series of psychiatric interviews that assesses the physical, psychological, social, and psychiatric manifestations of alcohol and other drug abuse and dependence as well as a variety of psychiatric disorders in adults.

The researchers recruited 293 subjects in total: 159 from substance-abuse treatment facilities, 59 from inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services, and 75 respondents from the community. The participant total contained just slightly more women (52.2%) than men. Participants were predominantly European American (46.8%), followed by African American (38.2%), and then Hispanic (7.5%). All of the subjects were interviewed twice during a two-week period. The researchers examined inter-rater reliability (will the same test given by different interviewers produce the same results?) and test-retest reliability (will responses of later interviews correspond to earlier responses to the same interviewer?) for dependence on nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, opioids, cannabis, stimulants and sedatives.

Results indicate that the SSADDA can be used reliably to assess substance dependence. The authors contend that – given its reliable assessment of both individual criteria and diagnoses, its poly-diagnostic nature, its ability to be administered by non-clinicians, and its computer-assisted format (which includes internal consistency checks) – the SSADDA can be a useful diagnostic instrument for a variety of applications – including genetic and family studies of substance dependence.

(Pierucci-Lagha, A, Gelernter, J, Chan, G, Arias, A, Cubells, JF, Farrer, L, Kranzler, HR: Reliability of DSM-IV diagnostic criteria using the semi-structured assessment for drug dependence and alcoholism (SSADDA). Drug and Alcohol Dependence 91:85-90, 2007.)

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