French Version of the Addiction Severity Index (5th Edition): Validity and Reliability among Swiss Opiate-Dependent Patients French Validation of the Addiction Severity Index

• Published in: European addiction research 2004-01, Vol.10 (4), p.173-179
• Main Authors: Krenz, Sonia, Dieckmann, Sarah, Favrat, Bernard, Spagnoli, Jacques, Leutwyler, Joëlle, Schnyder, Christiane, Daeppen, Jean-Bernard, Besson, Jacques
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Alcoholism - diagnosis; Alcoholism - epidemiology; Alcoholism - psychology; Alcoholism - rehabilitation; Cocaine-Related Disorders - diagnosis; Cocaine-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Cocaine-Related Disorders - psychology; Cocaine-Related Disorders - rehabilitation; Comorbidity; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Female; Heroin Dependence - diagnosis; Heroin Dependence - epidemiology; Heroin Dependence - psychology; Heroin Dependence - rehabilitation; Humans; Language; Male; Methadone; Observer Variation; Opioid-Related Disorders - diagnosis; Opioid-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Opioid-Related Disorders - psychology; Opioid-Related Disorders - rehabilitation; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Reproducibility of Results; Research Report; Statistics as Topic; Street Drugs; Substance Abuse Treatment Centers; Surveys and Questionnaires; Switzerland
• ISSN: 1022-6877; 1421-9891
• DOI: 10.1159/000079839

The aim of the study was to validate a French adaptation of the 5th version of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) instrument in a Swiss sample of illicit drug users. The participants in the study were 54 French-speaking dependent patients, most of them with opiates as the drug of first choice. Analyses of internal consistency (convergent and discriminant validity) and reliability, including measures of test-retest and inter-observer correlations, were conducted. Besides good applicability of the test, the results on composite scores (CSs) indicate comparable results to those obtained in a sample of American opiate-dependent patients. Across the seven dimensions of the ASI, Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.42 to 0.76, test-retest correlations coefficients ranged from 0.48 to 0.98, while for CSs, inter-observer correlations ranged from 0.76 to 0.99. Despite several limitations, the French version of the ASI presents acceptable criteria of applicability, validity and reliability in a sample of drug-dependent patients.