The Structured Clinical Interview for Substance Use Spectrum (SCI-SUBS) explores lifetime symptoms, behaviors and experiences related to substance use. It includes 131 dichotomous (yes/no) items grouped into six domains. The substance use domain explores the excessive use of chocolate, coffee, tea, diet pills, painkillers, and hypnotics not medically prescribed.The substance sensitivity domain explores increased sensitivity to drug and substances, including mood changes, anxiety attacks, and strange sensations. The use of drugs and substances for self-medication domain explores the use of substances to alleviate mood or anxiety symptoms, to control weight or improve body image, and to enhance one's performance or sensory perceptions. The sensation seeking domain explores the tendency toward strong emotions according to the temperament model developed by Cloninger.The attention deficit and hyperactivity domain explores restlessness symptoms and the lack of concentration at work or school.The substance use disorder domain includes the DSM-IV criterion symptoms for substance abuse and dependence disorder. Therefore, the SCI-SUBS can also be used as a diagnostic instrument.

Scoring

The SCI-SUBS instrument consists of 131 items coded as yes/no and divided into six domains.
See algorithm section, below on this page for how to score the instrument.

Psychometric Properties

Sbrana A, Dell’Osso L, Gonnelli C, Impagnatiello P, Doria MR, Spagnolli S, Ravani L, Cassano GB, Frank E, Shear MK, Grochocinski VJ, Rucci P, Maser JD, Endicott J: Acceptability, validity and reliability of the Structured Clinical Interview for the Spectrum of Substance Use (SCI-SUBS): A pilot study. Int J Methods Psychiatry Res 12:105-115, 2003.

Note: each items is scored as "0" (NO), "1" (YES).
(1) substance use	somma degli items 1 - 15
(1bis) substance use before the age of 15	somma degli items 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a
(2) substance and drug sensitivity	somma degli items 23 - 41
(3) self-medication	somma degli items 42 - 96
(4) sensation seeking	somma degli items 97 - 104
(5) attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms	somma degli items 105 - 108
(6) substance use disorder symptoms	somma degli items 109 - 131
items 16 to 21, that explore the frequency of drug use, are analyzed individually
Total score (sum of domains scores) range 0 - 131 Threshold for total score for any of the instruments: none determined at this time