Editing and Scaling of Instrument Packets for the Clinical Evaluation of Narcotic Antagonists. Final Report.

Efforts of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) as a contractor to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) include: (1) assessment of the usefulness of naltrexone, a narcotic antagonist, in the rehabilitation of several types of opiate-dependent individuals; (2) assessment of any drawbacks to the use of naltrexone; and (3) appraisal of acceptability of naltrexone in the addict populations under study. The role of Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the overall study effort was to provide services facilitating the interpretation of changes in behavior occuring in response to narcotic antagonist treatment. ETS undertook a review of data forms NAS-3, Background Interview; NAS-6, Craving Scale; and NAS-11 Status Interview; and the User's Manual with the intent of editing and modifying, when necessary, from the standpoint of clarity. Draft reports of the editorial comments are included as Appendix 1. Subsequent comments and suggestions pertaining to earlier revisions of forms and the revised manual are presented in Sections 2 and 3. The second goal of the ETS effort was to develop behavioral scales to provide a simplified summary of behavioral variations during the course of the study. Scales which were statistically feasible are presented in Section 4 along with the statistical information which led to their development. (RC)