Diagnostic Reliability and Validity of the Semi-Structured Assessment for Drug Dependence and Alcoholism (SSADDA) Chinese Version

The Semi-Structured Assessment for Drug Dependence and Alcoholism (SSADDA) is a polydiagnostic instrument for substance use and psychiatric disorders. We translated the SSADDA English version into Chinese (SSADDA-Chinese) and report here our examination of the diagnostic reliability and validity of DSM-IV substance dependence (SD) diagnoses in a Mandarin-speaking sample in Taiwan. We recruited 125 subjects who underwent an assessment of lifetime SD diagnoses using both the SSADDA-Chinese and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, Clinician Version (SCID-Chinese). Thirty-one subjects were retested with the SSADDA-Chinese. Cohen’s κ statistic, which measures chance-corrected agreement, was used to measure the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the individual SD diagnoses. There was a high degree of concordance between SD diagnoses made using the SSADDA-Chinese and the SCID-Chinese, including those for dependence on alcohol (κ = 0.83), ketamine (κ = 0.97), methamphetamine (κ = 0.93), and opioids (κ = 0.95). The test-retest reliability of dependence diagnoses for ketamine (κ = 0.95), methamphetamine (κ = 0.80), and opioids (κ = 1.00) obtained using the SSADDA-Chinese was excellent, while that for alcohol dependence (κ = 0.63) and nicotine dependence (κ = 0.65) was good. We conclude that the SSADDA-Chinese is a reliable and valid instrument for the diagnosis of major SD traits in Mandarin-speaking populations.