[Validation of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) in a Spanish sample of alcoholic patients].

Objective: This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) in alcohol-dependent Spanish population as a means of detecting psychiatric comorbidity.

Methods: The PDSQ (Zimmerman, 2001) is a self-administered questionnaire with 125 items which can be applied in just 15 minutes, enabling rapid and effective screening of the psychiatric disorders (Axis I) most commonly found among substance abusers. After linguistic adaptation (translation/back-translation) and verification of its content validity, the PDSQ was administered to 156 alcohol-dependent patients (DSM-IV criteria; women = 36%), treated consecutively in an alcohol-disorders treatment setting.