Clinical measurement of addictions.

Introduction And Aims: To conduct a systematic review of instruments for the clinical measurement of addictive behaviours and to determine whether substance addictive behaviours (SAB) and non-substance addictive behaviours (NSAB) are similarly conceptualised in clinical research.

Design And Methods: The analytic strategy employed comprised three steps: (i) major search engines were used to take stock of available clinical instruments for assessing addictive behaviours; (ii) an analysis grid was developed and validated, covering 21 parameters under four heuristic categories: dependence, temperament, social handicap and cognitive behaviour; and (iii) all instruments were analysed and compared via the grid.

Results: The search yielded 157 questionnaires covering 14 addictive behaviours.The analysis grid allowed rating all questionnaire items on one parameter only; very good interrater agreement was maintained throughout.The categories most evaluated by the questionnaires were dependence and cognitive behaviour; temperament and social handicap were much less frequently considered. Patterns were generally similar in terms of categories, whether questionnaires concerned SAB or NSAB; however, differences within categories indicated a greater frequency of psychologically oriented parameters for NSAB.

Conclusions: The measurement of addictive behaviours appears clinically cohesive, as determined by a validated analysis grid applied to an exhaustive set of questionnaires identified through a systematic literature review.