Adaptación al español de la Substance Dependence Severity Scale: resultados preliminares

The Substance Dependence Severity Scale -SDSS- is one of the few scales that assesses substance dependence and abuse according DSM criteria in dimensional terms. Several studies have provided evidence of psychometric validity and reliability in its English version, but there is no Spanish version available. The aim of this work was to describe the adaptation process of the English version of the SDSS into Spanish, and provide preliminary results on its reliability and validity evidence. Participants were 146 patients (79.6% male), consumers of alcohol, cocaine, heroin and cannabis admitted to treatment in the Drug Abuse Centre Services of Huelva. Besides the SDSS, the EUROPASI and the Health Related Quality of Life for Drug Abusers test -HRQOLDA- were also administered. The Substance Dependence Severity Scale -SDSS- has shown adequate psychometric properties in terms of the rates of discrimination and internal consistency (α=0.881 for alcohol; α=0.814 for cocaine; α=0.531 for cannabis; α=0.785 for heroin). However, the scale assessing abuse showed poorer results. Concerning the validity evidence, the evidence based on internal structure showed a unidimensional structure. Furthermore, the evidence based from the relationships with other variables empirically support the theoretical relationships postulated. Preliminary results support the use of the Substance Dependence Severity Scale. The severity scale, which evaluates abuse criteria, needs further empirical evidence to assess its utility. Therefore, its current version is not recommended for use.