TY  - JOUR
T1  - A new brief screen for adolescent substance abuse
AU  - Knight JR, Shrier LA, Bravender TD, Farrell M, Vander Bilt J, Shaffer HJ
Y1  - 1999/06/01
N1  - 10.1001/archpedi.153.6.591
JO  - Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
SP  - 591
EP  - 596
VL  - 153
IS  - 6
N2  - Objective 
    To develop a brief alcohol and other drug (AOD) screening test for adolescents.Methods 
    A 9-item test was constructed by combining and modifying items from several AOD assessments, and administered concurrently with the Personal Involvement With Chemicals Scale (PICS), the criterion standard.Setting 
    A hospital-based adolescent clinic.Subjects 
    Fourteen- to 18-year-old patients consecutively arriving for routine medical care who were known to have used AOD.Measures 
    Internal consistency of the 9 items was calculated using the Cronbach α. The relationship between the brief screen and PICS raw score was determined by stepwise linear regression analysis. The PICS T score has been shown to correctly classify substance abuse treatment need as no treatment (T<35), brief office intervention (T=35-40), outpatient or short-term treatment (T=41-54), and inpatient or long-term treatment (T≥55). Sensitivity and specificity rates for predicting a PICS T score of 55 or higher were calculated from 2 × 2 tables.Results 
    Ninety-nine adolescents were tested (70.7% female, 36.4% black, 32.3% white, 19.2% Hispanic, mean age, 16.3 years). The 9 items had good internal consistency (Cronbach α=.79). Stepwise linear regression analysis identified 6 items whose total combined score was highly correlated with PICS (Pearson r=0.84, P<.01). This model correctly classified 86% of subjects according to the PICS criteria. Two or more yes answers had a sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 82.1% for intensive AOD treatment need. The 6 items were arranged into a mnemonic (CRAFFT).Conclusions 
    Further research must confirm the test's psychometric properties in a general clinic population. However, CRAFFT seems promising as a brief AOD screening test.
SN  - 1072-4710
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archpedi.153.6.591
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.153.6.591
ER  -