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Purpose: This study explores the development and testing of an instrument to measure long-term-care planning behavior. Design and Methods: Researchers operationalized proposed constructs and response styles as statements in a questionnaire. A telephone survey involved 150 randomly selected residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida who were between the ages of 55 and 70. Responses underwent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and reliability testing. Results: The trimmed long-term-care planning instrument of 23 items had five subscales with high internal reliability (coefficients > .70), a comparative fit index of .987, and a root mean square error of approximation of .050. Responses involved making choices about housing, readiness to use help from family and friends, maintaining one's health, saving and investing money, and not accepting the need to ask for help. Implications: Future research of long-term-care planning behaviors can use the instrument. Practitioners may use the instrument as a diagnostic inventory, alone or in combination with personalized educational interventions aimed at increasing awareness of and planning for future dependency and long-term-care assistance. Key Words: Instrument, Concept development, Dependency, Formal care, Informal care

A new study examines the links between tobacco/nicotine dependance and Eysenck's personality traits in male long-term smokers in Japan.

The study examines the factors contributing to the initiation, continuation and termination of use among female and male long-term users of minor and major tranquillizers. The findings show the importance of the lay-referral system as a channel of introduction to psychotropic drug use, especially for men. The issue of dependency is explored both in terms of the users' own interpretation of its nature and their reports on the professional responses to their long-term use. The findings indicate that gender and drug use are intricately linked in both the non-professional and professional treatment of anxiety and insomnia. Key words - psychotropics, dependency, gender

Although dependence in adults has typically been viewed as a flaw or deficit in functioning, a review of the literature reveals that high levels of dependency are associated with both positive and negative qualities on the part of the dependent person. Studies confirming this association are discussed, along with the theoretical and practical implications of their findings.

Comparison of baseline dependence values from a dependence scale for Alzheimer's disease (AD) for 233 patients with a series of scores that analyzed the function and cognition of AD validated the dependence scale. A scalogram analysis showed that the scale agreed well with the period of functional loss during the disease. Prospective data revealed that the scale underwent modifications during disease progression.

The dependence syndrome concept, developed for alcohol and extended to other abused substances, postulates that its elements form a continuum of severity. Dependence severity should predict treatment success if this concept has predictive validity. Because most studies that examined this aspect of validity used alcoholic populations, we undertook the present 1-year follow-up of 48 opiate addicts to investigate whether dependence severity predicted program retention, treatment compliance, and psychological functioning. We also controlled demography, withdrawal severity, and substance use frequency. The best predictor of program retention was the addicts' rating of substance use frequency. Severity of opiate dependence predicted program retention in White addicts only. For non-White opiate addicts, concurrent depression and cocaine abuse had much greater associations with program retention compared to dependence severity., INTRODUCTION The dependence syndrome was proposed by Edwards and Gross [1] in the field of alcohol research. Syndrome elements included both psychological aspects of dependence, such as the inability to [...]

Objective: This study provides data on the psychometric characteristics of the German version of the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI). The ASI is a frequently used clinical and research instrument that measures problem severity among people with substance dependence. Method: The German ASI was used in a sample of 112 consecutively admitted male psychiatric inpatients seeking treatment for severe alcohol problems. The conceptual structure of the German ASI subscales was investigated by analyzing the intercorrelations of the severity ratings and composite scores. Internal consistency, interrater reliability and concurrent validity in terms of correlations with other assessment instruments were evaluated. Results: The German ASI subscales proved to be independent or moderately correlated (-0.17 [is less than] r [is less than] 0.34). Each correlation coefficient between corresponding severity ratings and composite scores was significant (p [is less than] .0005), ranging from r = 0.47 to r = 0.93. Reliability measures indicated moderate to good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.69-0.92) and moderate to excellent interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.62-0.99). Validity was supported by significantly higher ratings in the alcohol section in alcohol dependent patients compared to patients without dependence (t = 2.99, 108 df, p = .004). Significant correlations (p [is less than] .001) were found between the alcohol use section and the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (r = 0.34 composite score and r = 0.44 severity rating) and between psychiatric status and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (r = 0.55/0.51), supporting concurrent validity. Conclusions: The German version presented evidence of acceptable psychometric properties and its applicability in German-speaking countries could be confirmed. (J. Stud. Alcohol 61: 916-919, 2000), SINCE ITS INTRODUCTION in 1979, the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) has become one of the most commonly used instruments for the assessment of the severity of drug and alcohol dependence [...]

Dear Editor: Kandel and Chen do a nice job of stratifying marijuana use groups (Kandel and Chen, 2000). Several of their points are very significant as we consider marijuana to [...]

Using a conceptual framework of attachment, an interview study of 81 women whose spouses had died indicated that anxiety and fear are prevalent throughout the first three years of bereavement. In addition, those women identified as anxiously attached in their relationships reported a more distressful adjustment. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Key words: AOD dependence; diagnostic criteria; disorder definition; AOD withdrawal syndrome When Edwards and Gross published this article in 1976, establishing diagnostic criteria for alcoholism was becoming increasingly important. Much [...]

High levels of comorbid alcohol dependence have been recorded in women with bulimia nervosa. The issue of how women with comorbid bulimia nervosa and alcohol dependence may differ from those with bulimia nervosa alone, has been addressed. Characteristics such as borderline personality disorder or impulsiveness have been identified as important features of bulimic women with comorbid alcohol dependence. It is unknown whether these characteristics are a causal factor.