Brief screening for psychological and substance abuse disorders in veterans with long-term spinal cord injury

Objective. To determine rates of positive screens for psychological and sub stance use disorders in persons with long-term spinal cord injury (SCI). St udy Design: A naturalistic cohort design wherein consecutive admissions dur ing an 8-month period completed the screening battery. Setting: Veterans Af fairs SCI Center. Participants: One hundred fifteen men, 2 women, mean age 57.4 years, injured an average of 20 years, readmitted for various reasons. Main Outcome Measures: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDI T) and screening items for depression and anxiety disorders. Results: Rates of positive screens ranged from 6.2% for alcohol problems to over 40% for anxiety disorders. Positive screens for depression and anxiety correlated p ositively with the number of recent hospital admissions. Conclusions: Syste matic brief screening for psychological and substance abuse disorders in th is population revealed rates of positive screens at least equal to those in other medical patient populations.