Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36680769›Full record

ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2023

The predictive validity of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) for moderate- to high-risk cannabis, methamphetamine and opioid use after release from prison.

Craig Cumming, Stuart A Kinner, Rebecca McKetin, Jesse T Young, Ian Li, David B Preen

Open access · hybridAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.5field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Addiction & health · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Craig CummingCentre for Health Services Research, School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-2556-3294
Stuart A KinnerCentre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-3956-5343
Rebecca McKetinNational Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-2833-4830
Jesse T YoungCentre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-5702-372X
Ian LiSchool of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
David B PreenCentre for Health Services Research, School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.
The University of Western Australia · AUGriffith University · AUThe University of Melbourne · AUUNSW Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

aimsIllicit substance use is common among people entering prisons, as is returning to substance use after release from prison. We aimed to assess the predictive validity of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) for returning to substance use after release from prison.

designA longitudinal design with baseline survey conducted between 2008 and 2010 in the 6 weeks before expected prison release and up to three follow-up surveys in the 6 months after release.

settingPrisons in Queensland, Australia.

participantsA total of 1054 adults within 6 weeks of expected release from prison. MEASUREMENTS: The ASSIST was used to assess problematic use of cannabis, methamphetamine, heroin and other non-prescribed opioids in the 3 months before incarceration. Post-incarceration substance use was measured at 1, 3 and 6 months after release. We calculated the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the optimal ASSIST cut-off score for each substance, using Youden's index (J).

findingsForty-one per cent (n = 434) of the cohort reported any substance use during follow-up: 33% (n = 344) used cannabis, 20% (n = 209) methamphetamine, 10% (n = 109) heroin and 9% (n = 97) illicit other opioids. The optimal ASSIST cut-off score was ≥ 4 for heroin, methamphetamine and cannabis and ≥ 1 for other opioids. Using these cut-offs, the AUROC was highest for heroin in predicting both any use (AUROC = 0.82) and weekly use (AUROC = 0.88) in the past 4 weeks. AUROCs for other drugs ranged from 0.73 to 0.79.

conclusionsThe ASSIST shows promise as an accurate and potentially scalable tool that may be useful for predicting a return to substance use after release from prison and could inform service delivery. The substantial rates of returning to substance use after release from prison suggest that prison serves to interrupt rather than cease substance use.

Indexed as

CannabisMethamphetamineOpioid-Related DisordersPrisonersAdultAnalgesics, OpioidHeroinHumansPrisonsSmokingAnalgesics, OpioidHeroinMethamphetamineAlcohol smoking and substance involvement toolpredictive validityprisonriskscreeningsubstance use

Identifiers

PMID36680769
PMCPMC10952147
OpenAlexW4317670107

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.