Abstract
The authors determined interrelationships among 61 items in a scale designed to assess the severity of substance-related disorder (SRD) and develop subscales that measure distinct substance-related areas of dysfunction. They evaluated 642 outpatients with items previously developed among patients with SRDs. Trained interviewers administered the Minnesota Substance Abuse Problem Scales (M-SAPS), which uses responses to yes/no (lifetime) questions. A factor analysis of items was compared with data from patients and addiction psychiatrists to measure the concurrent validity of the M-SAPS factors, yielding 37 items in three factors: Psychiatric-Behavioral Problems (14 items), Social-Interpersonal Problems (11 items), and Addiction-Dependence Symptoms (12 items). These three scales correlate with 10 scales/assessments concurrently collected independently of the M-SAPS, yielding a brief, valid, interviewer-administered, substance-related problem scale that assesses SRD severity in three distinct areas.