Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 33, Issue 2, February 2008, Pages 381-387
Addictive Behaviors

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Comparing the BDI-II and the PHQ-9 with outpatient substance abusers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.09.017Get rights and content

Abstract

Because of the high co-occurrence of Axis-I mood disorders with primary substance use disorders (SUD), it is important to routinely assess substance abusers for evidence of a mood disorder. The primary goal of the present study was to examine the psychometric characteristics of two widely used self-report measures of depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II; Patient Health Questionnaire PRIME MD) with substance abusers (N = 108) in an outpatient treatment setting. Using Cronbach's alpha, the reliabilities of the BDI-II and the PHQ-9 were 0.95 and 0.91, respectively. Principal component factor analyses of both measures were conducted to evaluate the relationship between a 3-factor solution (cognitive, affective, and somatic) for the BDI-II and a 1-factor solution for the PHQ-9 (depression). Both measures were correlated with severity levels of alcohol and drug use. Advantages and disadvantages of using both measures with substance abusers are discussed.

Section snippets

Design and setting

This study used data from clients who voluntarily sought treatment at the Guided Self-Change (GSC) clinic at the Nova Southeastern University Psychology Services Center in South Florida. The GSC treatment model is an evidence based brief cognitive-behavioral motivational intervention that has been extensively evaluated and described in detail elsewhere (Sobell and Sobell, 1993, Sobell and Sobell, 2005). Because the GSC intervention is brief and motivational, it primarily provides services to

Results

As can be seen in Table 1 and as was expected, there were some notable differences between the substance use variables between the alcohol and drug abusers. Scores on the AUDIT and DAST-10 support group membership of substance abuse. In addition, low mean number of substance use, arrests, and hospitalizations supports that these participants' were not severely dependent.

After using the Bonferroni adjustment to maintain the family wise error rate at a .05 level, an independent t-test analysis

Discussion

The present study found that both the BDI-II and the PHQ-9 have good internal consistency with outpatient alcohol and drug abusers. These findings parallel with the results of other clinical populations (i.e., mood and anxiety disorders, health problems; Arnau et al., 2001, Buckely et al., 2001, Kroenke et al., 2001, Steer and Ball, 1999, Steer and Ball, 1999). The exploratory factor analysis for the BDI-II yielded a 3-factor structure (somatic, cognition, and affective). These results are also

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