STRUCTURE, CONTENT AND RELIABILITY OF THE MUNICH COMPOSITE INTERNATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC INTERVIEW (M-CIDI) SUBSTANCE USE SECTIONS

After reviewing currently available diagnostic assessment instruments for substance use disorders this paper describes the format and struct ure of the Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI ) substance disorder section. In addition, the test-retest reliability of diagnoses and criteria for nicotine, alcohol, illegal and prescrip tion drugs, is reported. Findings obtained in community sample of adol escents and young adults indicate that the substance section is accept able for almost all types of respondents, efficient in terms of time a nd ease of administration as well as reliable in terms of consistency of findings over time. The test-retest reliability over a period of an average of 1 month, as examined by two independent interviewers indic ates good-to-excellent kappa values for all substance disorders assess ed, with significant kappa values ranging between 0.55 for drug abuse and 0.83 for alcohol abuse. There was also fairly consistently high ag reement for the assessment of single DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ab use and dependence as well as the M-CIDI quantity-frequency and time-r elated questions. To conclude, although - unlike previous studies - th is study was conducted in a community sample and not in patients and u sed considerably longer time intervals of more than a month between in vestigations, our M-CIDI reliability findings are at least as high as those from previous studies.