SynthesisDrug and alcohol dependence2023
A systematic review of brief, freely accessible, and valid self-report measures for substance use disorders and treatment.
Synthesis in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Patient-reported outcomes for monitoring substance use treatment: A systematic review of single-item measures.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review of patient-reported outcome measures for opioid use disorder recovery.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of validity of US survey measures for assessing substance use and substance use disorders.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Understanding risk and protective factors associated with opioid misuse among at-risk adolescents and young adults in the emergency department.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- Assessing interpersonal violence involvement in psychiatric patients: exploratory findings on the Interpersonal Violence Questionnaire (IVIQ).BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Wellbeing trajectories and dementia risk among Mexican-origin adults living in the U.S.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Identity Reconstruction as a Coping Mechanism in Addiction Recovery: A Pilot Stratified Randomized Controlled Trial of Narrative Therapy Group Intervention.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Present but Overlooked: A Scoping Review of Instruments and Approaches for Measuring Presenteeism Related to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Review
- Moving Beyond Self-Report in Characterizing Drug Addiction: Using Drug-Biased Behavior to Predict Treatment Completion and Dropout in Heroin-Primary, Medication-Maintained Opioid Use Disorder.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Tracking progress via clinical feedback systems in treatment of substance use disorders: a qualitative study exploring patients' response processes.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Substance use and mental health characteristics among pregnant individuals with medical and non-medical benzodiazepine use early in pregnancy.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- The Youth Risk Index: psychometrics, predicting the initiation of early adolescent substance use, and the breadth of liability detected.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Evidence-Based Assessment of Substance Use Disorder.Assessment · 2024Review
- Developing Computerized Adaptive Testing for a National Health Professionals Exam: An Attempt from Psychometric Simulations.Perspectives on medical education · 2023Article
- "They Don't Give You No Note If It's Got Fentanyl": Using Cognitive Interviews to Understand Self-report and Urine Drug Screen Discrepancies.Substance use : research and treatmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSelf-report measures can improve evidence-based assessment practices in substance use disorder treatment, but many measures are burdensome and costly, limiting their utility in community practice and non-specialty healthcare settings. This systematic review identified and evaluated the psychometric properties of brief, free, and readily accessible self-report measures of substance use and related factors.
methodsWe searched two electronic databases (PsycINFO and PubMed) in May 2021 for published literature on scales, measures, or instruments related to substance use, substance use treatment, and recovery, and extracted the names of all measures. Measures were included if they were: (1) brief (25 items or fewer), (2) freely accessible in a ready-to-use format, and (3) had published psychometric data.
resultsAn initial search returned 411 measures, of which 73 (18%) met criteria for inclusion. Included measures assessed a variety of substances (e.g., alcohol, nicotine, opioids, cannabinoids, cocaine) and measurement domains (e.g., use, severity, expectancies, withdrawal). Among these measures, 14 (19%) were classified as psychometrically "excellent," 27 (37%) were rated as "good," 32 (44%) were "adequate."
conclusionsDespite the shift toward evidence-based assessment in substance use disorder treatment in the last twenty years, key areas of public health concern are lacking pragmatic, psychometrically valid measures. Among the brief measures we reviewed, less than a fifth met criteria for psychometric "excellence" and most of these instruments fell into one measurement domain: screening for problematic substance use. Future research should focus both on improving the evidence base for existing brief self-report measures and creating new low-burden measures for specific substances and treatment constructs.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.