Reliability of the Drug Use Screening Inventory Among Adolescent Alcoholics

Psychometric reliability of the Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI) was examined in 191 adolescents who qualified for a DSM-III-R diagnosis of Psychoactive Substance Use Disorder. Internal, split-half and test-retest reliability was found to be superior. Caucasian subjects exhibited more severe substance use problems than African-American subjects but did not differ in any other domain. Females reported more severe disturbances than males on health status, psychiatric disorder, social competence, family system and leisure/recreation compared to males but were less severely disrupted in work adjustment. These results suggest that the DUSI may be useful for identifyign and quantifying substance use and related problems.