Clinimetric and Psychometric Evidences of an Instrument to Assess Craving for Inhalants in a Sample of Users

Abstract

Introduction: craving is an important criterion in the diagnosis of inhalant use disorder; detecting this condition in the inhalant addictive cycle can help in predicting prolonged abstinence or relapses.

Objective: to describe the psychometric and clinimetric evidence of the craving scale in a sample of users.

Method: a cross-sectional study with a non-probability sample of 76 adult participants. For the analysis, the sample was divided into two groups: inhalant use disorder group (n = 60) an experimental user group (n = 16). A craving scale for inhalants was applied. A descriptive, factorial analysis and a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis were performed.

Results: the ROC analysis to differentiate between users with inhalant users disorder and experimental users showed a cut-off point of 36 mm, with a sensitivity of .983 and a specificity of .813 (1= specificity of .187). The overall analysis showed that the craving scores of users with inhalant use disorder were considerably higher (M = 417.15, SD = 215) than experimental users (M = 185, SD = 136.25).

Discussion and conclusions: clinical evidence showed a valid cut-off point to detect the presence of craving in inhalant users and this score can be used as an objective reference in clinical practice; the craving scale has adequate reliability and validity evidence.

Objective: to evaluate the ability to perceive social cues, interpersonal attitudes and the communication of intentions by nonverbal expressive channels in patients with schizophrenia when compared with a control group.

Method: a cross-sectional, comparative study (102 subjects, aged 18 to 45). The first group consisted of 50 patients with schizophrenia, (48% men) according to DSM-5 criteria. The second group consisted of 52 subjects (51.9% men) without psychopathology or history of mental disorders in first degree relatives, neurological deficits and intellectual disabilities. MiniPONS was used to assess social perception and the TAS-20 scale was used to assess alexithymia. We used χ² and Student’s t-tests, and an analysis of variance of two factors (group-sex) was used for MiniPONS and TAS scores. We searched for correlations between MiniPONS, alexithymia and PANSS.

Results: we found a significant correlation between education and MiniPONS and TAS scores in the schizophrenia group: r = .36, p < .01 and r = -.46, p < .01, but not in the control group: r = .17, p = .41 and r = -.08, p = .71. The schizophrenia group performed worse on the MiniPONS: 39.90, SD = 5.99.

Discussion and conclusions: our results show a worse overall performance in nonverbal communication and affect identification in the patient group. These failures exemplify the difficulty of understanding their own emotions.