AN INTERRATER RELIABILITY STUDY OF THE OPIATE TREATMENT INDEX

The development of standardized instruments to evaluate treatment outc ome for opioid dependence is necessary to determine individual patient s' progress within a particular treatment programme and to compare tre atment outcomes across programmes. This paper reports the results of a n inter-rater reliability study utilizing the Opiate Treatment Index ( OTI). The OTI questionnaire is a standardized opiate treatment evaluat ion tool developed within a research setting. The main aim of this stu dy was to determine within the clinical setting of a Methadone Treatme nt Programme (MTP), whether information given by patients differed sig nificantly according to whether the OTI questionnaire was administered by clinicians working within the service, or by an unknown research a ssistant. Results indicated that overall there were few differences be tween the information given to clinicians compared with that given to the research assistant and that in general, inter-rater reliability wa s good. A number of issues related to the development and use of treat ment outcome measures in clinical settings are highlighted and it is p roposed that for MTPs a shorter questionnaire, based on the OTI, be de veloped.