Susbstance Abuse Assessment Tools for Youth

Substance abuse is a serious problem that plagues the youth population. As more adolescents are exposed to illicit substances, such as alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, the chances of their developing substance abuse disorders and dependencies later on increase. Outpatient and inpatient treatment programs that aim to help youth stop using substances rely on assessment tools to collect data that can be useful in creating a treatment plan for the individual.

General Tools

• The NIDA-Modified Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test, or NMASSIST, is an assessment tool that clinicians use in general health care to find out if a youth is actively using substances. This web-based tool was developed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) out of a recognized need to capture statistics on drug abuse. The assessment tool is a questionnaire that asks a series of questions about the types of drugs that an individual uses and how often the substances are used; then the tool provides clinicians with a summary of whether the patient seems to be a substance abuse risk. The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory for Adolescents, or SASSI, is another general tool that measures all kinds of substance abuse specifically for adolescents.

Alcohol-Exclusive Tools

• The Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale, or AAIS, is an assessment tool that exclusively measures a youth's behaviors when it comes to drinking alcohol. This assessment does not gauge other types of substances, such as marijuana, opiates or painkiller medications. The AAIS asks adolescents 14 questions around the type of alcohol that is used and the frequency that it is used. This is a self-report, meaning the AAIS is a screening tool that is used by the youth. At the end of the assessment, the youth is given a score between 0 and 79, which speaks to the level of alcohol use reported. On this scale, a 0 score would indicate that the youth is a nonuser of alcohol, whereas a 79 score would indicate the individual has a dependency to alcohol. The Adolescent Drinking Index is another assessment tool that only evaluates alcohol usage and works similarly to the AAIS.

Diagnostic Interviews

• Diagnostic interviews are assessment screening tools that address whether or not a youth has a diagnosable problem with substance abuse. The Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents, or DICA, is one such tool. This interview consists of 416 items to be covered for the evaluator to determine if a youth has a substance abuse disorder. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, or DISC, is another tool that is used for the same purpose. After the interviews are conducted, the evaluator determines the appropriate course of treatment for youth who present as having a substance abuse disorder.

Multiscale Assessment Tools

• A multiscale assessment tool is one that measures various depths of substance abuse in youth. These tools are self-administered, so adolescents can complete them on their own. To eliminate or minimize the potential of misrepresentation on the tool, multiscale assessment tools are developed to detect response discrepancies. Some tools may take youth an hour to complete, while others could take 20 minutes. The Chemical Dependency Assessment Profile, or CDAP, Hilson Adolescent Profile, or HAP, and Personal Experience Inventory, or PEI, are examples of multiscale assessment tools. These tools dig deep into the youth's life to understand what types of behaviors are exhibited in the youth's friends, family, whether the youth is a victim of abuse, whether the individual appears to be depressed and other comprehensive questions that can pinpoint a substance abuse disorder.