When used to screen for risky drug use in adults,
the measures take approximately 10 minutes to
administer and score.^216 Although it is
copyrighted, the instrument is available for use
by clinicians, educators and researchers.^217 The
DAST does not require training to administer.^218
Populations and Settings Served. The DAST
instruments have been used successfully among
adolescents and adult treatment seekers,
psychiatric patients, females involved in the
justice system as well as in the workplace.^219
Clinical Utility. The DAST has been found to
be both valid and reliable.^220 The DAST-28 can
identify up to 96 percent of individuals with
addiction involving drugs and has been found to
misidentify as few as nine percent of those
without addiction.^221 Its overall accuracy in
classifying patients according to DSM criteria
for substance abuse is 89 percent.^222 The 28-
item version was found to be better at assessing
lifetime addiction involving alcohol and other
drugs than current addiction among recently
admitted psychiatric public hospital patients.^223
The DAST-20 has been found to be a valid
instrument in psychiatric outpatient^224 and
inmate^225 populations.
DAST-10 has demonstrated sensitivity rates
ranging from 41 to 95 percent and specificity
rates ranging from 68 to 99 percent, depending
on the cut-off score used and the population
group studied.^226 This shorter version is more
accurate at identifying risky users than
individuals with addiction.^227
Among adolescents at inpatient evaluation and
crisis intervention units, the adolescent version
of DAST identified accurately 78.6 percent of
those with addiction and 84.5 percent of those
without addiction.^228
Additional Screening and
Assessment Instruments
Many instruments have been developed to
screen for or assess risky tobacco, alcohol or
other drug use and addiction. Researchers
continue to combine, restructure and create
questionnaires to better identify individuals at
risk for addiction or those in need of treatment.
The tools described above are some of the most
commonly used, well-studied and
recommended.Other validated instruments exist, however,
including: the Adolescent Diagnostic Interview;
the Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis
questionnaire; the Alcohol Expectancy
Questionnaire; the Alcohol Use Inventory; the
Chemical Use, Abuse, and Dependence Scale;
the Drinker Inventory of Consequences
instrument; the Global Appraisal of Individual
Needs (GAIN) assessment instrument; the
MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale; the Obsessive-
Compulsive Drinking Scale; the Personal
Experience Inventory; the Rutgers Alcohol
Problem Index; the Texas Christian University
Drug Screen; and the Young Adult Alcohol
Problems Screening.^229