Psychometric properties of the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) in heroin dependent adults and adolescents with drug use disorder

摘要

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT), developed to screen individuals for drug problems, in Turkish patients with drug use disorder. Method: Participants included 100 adolescents with drug use disorder in a substance abuse treatment program for adolescents, 123 heroin dependent adults in a residential substance abuse treatment program, and 35 alcohol dependents from the same clinic, who did not report a drug abuse problem. Results: The DUDIT was found to be a psychometrically sound drug abuse screening measure with high convergent validity (r=0.76) when compared with the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10), and to have a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93. In addition, a single component accounted for 58.65% of total variance, and the DUDIT had sensitivity and specificity scores of 0.96 and 0.94, respectively, when using the optimal cut-off score of 10. Additionally, the DUDIT showed good discriminant validity as it significantly differentiated patients with drug use disorder from alcohol dependents. Conclusion: These findings support the DUDIT as a reliable and valid drug abuse screening instrument that measures a unidimensional construct in Turkish patients with drug use disorder. Further research is warranted with both additional clinical populations and with high risk populations such as those in criminal justice settings.