Evaluation of DTES–A simple drug-taking scale

Abstract

One of the core findings in research on comorbidity is that psychiatric routines often underestimate substance use. This creates a need for instruments adjusted both to clinical work and the standards of research. The Drug-Taking Evaluation Scale (DTES) is a simple clinically based scale. The aim of this study was to estimate the reliability and validity of the DTES. Seven professionals contributed with clinical vignettes on 16 patients. The professionals had scored the patients with the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). All the professionals rated all the vignettes with DTES, except their own. This provided 96 DTES evaluations for analysis of reliability and validity. The inter-rater reliability of the DTES was high (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient–ICC: 0.66–0.82). Its validity, estimated as correlation with relevant ASI scores (0.41–0.81 by same constructs and close to 0 by different construct), was good. DTES gives as valid and reliable information as the far more demanding ASI while it at the same time is suited to standard use in treatment units.

• Substance related disorder
• comorbidity
• psychiatric status rating scales/is
• reliability
• validity