Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI) and (DUSI-R)
Brief description
The Drug Use Screening Inventory (DUSI) and a revised version (DUSI-R) were developed to identify consequences of alcohol and drug involvement. The DUSI is a 149-item multidimensional instrument that quantifies not only involvement with drugs and alcohol, but also associated problems in the areas of mental health and psychosocial domains. The DUSI-R consists of 159 items. One goal of the revised version was to incorporate a "lie scale" to account for denial of problem areas.
Both the original and revised versions cover 10 domains. These are:
- substance use
- behaviour problems
- health status
- psychiatric disorder
- social competency
- family adjustment
- school adjustment
- peer relations
- leisure/recreation.
The most recent study used the revised version to aggregate items into scales that implicate current and future psychiatric disorders, with scales derived for ADHD, conduct, antisocial, anxiety, depression and substance use disorders.
Appropriate target populations
Validated in adolescents 12 to 18 years old. The validation data for the revised tool focused on psychiatric disorders and included boys only. Validation studies have been conducted in Costa Rica with a Spanish version.
Administration options
Formats available
_X_ self-administered (paper-and-pencil)
_X_ self-administered (computer)
___ clinician-administered
Time required
Twenty to 30 minutes
Languages available
_X_ English
___ French
_X_ Other (Spanish)
Accessibility and cost
___ no charge for use
___ use requires permission of test developer
___ use requires special training and/or professional or academic credentials
_X_ fee for use (The developers recommend administration by drug counsellors and other qualified users.)
Where to Access
Ralph Tarter,
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
University of Pittsburgh, School of Pharmacy,
711 Salk Hall,
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Summary of test development data
Quality of reporting
Moderate, based on STARD rating (see Appendix, p.76).
Summary of validity and reliability data
Moderate, largely due to the best diagnostic validation data being confined to boys.