A Modification of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐III‐R to Evaluate Methadone Patients: Test—Retest Reliability

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐III‐R—Substance Abuse Comorbidity version (SCID‐SAC) was developed to detect treatable mood and anxiety syndromes among substance abusers based on the temporal relationship of these disorders over the lifetime. The authors describe the instrument and report a study of test—retest reliability in 31 methadone maintenance patients prescreened for depression. Kappas for the combined category, Primary or Persistent During Abstinence, were 0.74 within major depression, 0.67 within any depressive syndrome, and 0.43 within panic disorder, with intraclass correlations for ages at onset and ratings of mood disorder chronicity at good levels. This finding suggests that such retrospective data can be reliably measured by use of the SCID‐SAC. (American Journal on Addictions 1996; 5:241–248)