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Background: A growing body of evidence has highlighted the significant relationship between social anxiety disorder and hazardous alcohol consumption, harmful use, and alcohol use disorder. This relationship may influence the reporting of fear and avoidance of social or performance situations on common self-report measures among individuals with hazardous alcohol use or dependence. Method: The current study utilized modern psychometric methods, namely Item Response Theory (IRT) and Differential Item Functioning (DIF), in an online sample of Australian adults (n = 1052) to examine the potential under- or over-reporting of items on the Social Interaction Anxiety and Social Phobia Scales (SIAS/SPS) by groups of alcohol users (as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), while controlling for underlying levels of social anxiety severity. Results: The results indicated that there were no items on the SIAS/SPS that exhibited significant (p < 0.01) and meaningful DIF (based on an a priori cutoff of change in pseudo-R2 across nested models >0.05) attributable to either hazardous consumption or symptoms of alcohol dependence. Moreover, the combined effect of multiple items that demonstrated significant (but non-meaningful) DIF on total SIAS scores relative to scores that assume no DIF between alcohol using groups was minimal. Conclusions: This study suggests that different rates of social anxiety across levels of alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence may not be the result of a systematic under- or over-reporting of certain items on the SIAS and SPS, and as such total social anxiety scores can be compared regardless of the level of alcohol use or dependence symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Knowledge of public opinion towards drug policy is often limited to analyses of individual survey questions. There has been less thought given to the underlying structure of public opinion, and how attitudes towards different facets of drug policy, for example, law enforcement and harm reduction, might align into ideological positions. This paper aims to assess the extent to which distinct ideologies are present among the general public in Australia in relation to drug policy. Method: The study involved a Latent Class Analysis of data taken from the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey. The analysis categorized individuals into mutually exclusive groups (classes), according to their responses to 15 attitudinal items. Findings: Six classes of individuals were identified, and were labelled as: uninformed, ambivalent, detached prohibitionists, committed prohibitionists, harm reductionists and legalizers. Conclusions: The unique analysis presented in this paper demonstrates the existence of six distinct classes of opinions towards drug policy in an Australian sample. Whilst there were a large proportion of respondents in support of both drug legalization and harm reduction, there were also many who opposed drug legalization, yet supported harm reduction. Any assumption that supporting harm reduction automatically equates with support for legalization, is erroneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) is a widely used measure of the worry characteristic of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) is a new brief screening tool for GAD, which is being increasingly used in research and clinical practice. The present study sought to provide comparison data on the relative psychometric properties of these two scales. The data of 195 adults who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for GAD and who participated in two randomised treatment controlled trials were used. Factor analyses, internal consistency, correlational analyses, responsiveness to change, and agreement between the scales based on indentified clinical cutoffs were conducted. Factor analyses confirmed a one-factor structure for the GAD-7 and a three-factor structure involving two method factors for the PSWQ. Both the GAD-7 and the PSWQ demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: .79-.91 and .86-.91, respectively), and moderate correlations (r = .51-.71) were observed between the scales across the treatment time points. The scales exhibited small correlations with the Sheehan Disability Scale at pretreatment (GAD-7 r = .38; PSWQ r = .26), but moderate correlations at posttreatment and follow-up (r = .59-.79). Agreement between the scales was limited using various clinical cutoffs identified within the literature. Both measures were sensitive to change, although the GAD-7 appeared to be more sensitive and may, therefore, confer some advantages in clinical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item (PHQ-9) and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) are frequently used measures of depression severity, but little is known about their relative psychometric properties. The authors assessed psychometric properties of both measures during treatment for depression. The PHQ-9 and BDI-II scores from 172 depressed participants in two randomized controlled trials of treatment for depression were assessed and combined. Tests of internal consistency (Cronbach's α), factor analyses, correlational analyses, estimates of clinically significant change, and effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated after treatment and follow-up. Both scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency at pre- and posttreatment (PHQ-9 α = .74 and .81; BDI-II α = .87 and .90, respectively). Factor analysis failed to confirm the one-factor model previously reported for the PHQ-9, but two factors evidenced good fit for the BDI-II. Both scales converged more with each other than with the Sheehan Disability Scale at pre- but not at posttreatment. Responsiveness to change of PHQ-9 and BDI-II was similar at both posttreatment and follow-up. The consistency of agreement on indices of clinical significance was fair to moderate, but the BDI-II categorised a greater proportion of participants with severe depression than the PHQ-9. The BDI-II and PHQ-9 demonstrated adequate reliability, convergent/discriminant validity, and similar responsiveness to change. Differences were found in how they categorised severity. Pending the results of further studies, the attributes of the PHQ-9, of being shorter and based on the diagnostic criteria for depression, may indicate an advantage over the BDI-II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]