CHOOSING A CUTOFF ON THE SEVERITY OF DEPENDENCE SCALE (SDS) FOR AMPHETAMINE USERS

In order to ascertain a cut-off score on the Severity of Dependence Sc ale (SDS) which is indicative of clinically significant amphetamine de pendence, 327 regular amphetamine users were administered the SDS, alo ng with the ''Disorders resulting from the use of psychoactive substan ces'' section of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CID I) for DSM-III-R. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis tea s used in order to determine which cut-off score on the SDS allowed th e best trade-off between sensitivity and specificity, when calibrated against the presence or absence of a DSM-III-R diagnosis of severe amp hetamine dependence. Results suggest that the SDS has high diagnostic utility, and that a score of greater than four on the scale Is indicat ive of problematic amphetamine use.