Performance of a new substance dependence screening questionnaire (SDSQ) in a non-clinical population

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.