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One hundred and eighteen inmates enrolled in a comprehensive residential drug treatment program were administered the Drug Lifestyle Screening Interview (DLSI) and followed for 2 years. A marginally significant predictive effect was observed in which subjects achieving elevated DLSI scores ([greater than or equal to]12) displayed more subsequent alcohol and drug misuse than lower scoring subjects, 21.7 versus 9.7%. The Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form (LCSF) enjoyed a somewhat stronger predictive relationship with future outcome in that 27.3% of the high scoring subjects (LCSF score [greater than or equal to]10) subsequently misused alcohol or other drugs as opposed to only 4.4% of the low scoring subjects. Regression analysis also revealed die superiority of the LCSF in predicting future outcome. These findings suggest that criminal background should be taken into account when evaluating the relapse potential of drug-involved offenders once they leave treatment., INTRODUCTION The Drug Lifestyle Screening Interview (DLSI) provides clinicians with a reliable and potentially functional technique for assessing the lifestyle that presumably evolves out of a person's abuse of various [...]

This study examines the test-retest reliability of two interview schedules (computer- and clinician-administered) in diagnosing lifetime comorbidity in treated substance abusers. The Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule (C-DIS) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) were both administered to 173 substance abusers after random assignment to one of two groups. Within I to 2 weeks, subjects in the first group repeated the C-DIS and subjects in the second group were reinterviewed by a different clinician, blind to the results of the initial SCID. Both instruments showed good to excellent reliability for DSM-III-R psychoactive substance use disorders with kappas ranging from .50 to .89 for individual disorders. However, the reliability of comorbid other mental disorders was substantially poorer on both instruments, particularly the SCID. C-DIS kappas ranged from -.05 for generalized anxiety to .70-for simple phobia. SCID kappas ranged from .31 for panic disorder to .83 for antisocial personality disorder. Anxiety disorders as a category, some phobic disorders, and antisocial personality disorder showed acceptable levels of test-retest reliability on both instruments. There was a trend for borderline or threshold cases to account for some of the disagreement on the C-DIS. Differences of opinion between clinicians on organicity accounted for some of the disagreements on panic disorder and major depression. The C-DIS, unlike the SCID, tended to diagnose more disorders at initial interview, perhaps a result of its tedious probe structure. Nether instrument should be administered only once to provide a reliable lifetime diagnostic profile of comorbidity in substance abusers., INTRODUCTION The terms 'comorbidity' or 'dual diagnosis' are used to describe the co-occurrence of psychoactive substance use and other mental disorders within the same individual. The Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) [...]