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Development and psychometric evaluation of the Benzodiazepine Craving Questionnaire
A J J Mol1, R C Oude Voshaar, W J M J Gorgels
1Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre St. Radboud, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. a.mol@psy.umcn.nl
Aim:
To assess the scalability, reliability and validity of a newly constructed self-report questionnaire on craving for benzodiazepines (BZs), the Benzodiazepine Craving Questionnaire (BCQ).
Setting And Participants:
The BCQ was administered once to a sample of 113 long-term and 80 former long-term general practice BZ users participating in a large BZ reduction trial in general practice.
Measurements:
(1) Unidimensionality of the BCQ was tested by means of the Rasch model. (2) The Rasch-homogeneous BCQ items were assessed for subject and item discriminability. (3) Discriminative and construct validity were assessed.
Findings:
The BCQ met the requirements for Rasch homogeneity, i.e. BZ craving as assessed by the scale can be regarded as a unidimensional construct. Subject and item discriminability were good. Construct validity was modest. Highest significant associations were found with POMS depression (Kendall's tau-c = 0.15) and Dutch Shortened MMPI negativism (Kendall's tau-c = 0.14). Discriminative validity was satisfactory. Highest discriminative power was found for a subset of eight items (Mann-Whitney U Z = - 3.6, P = 0.000). The first signs of craving are represented by the acknowledgement of expectations of positive outcome, whereas high craving is characterized by direct intention to use.
Conclusions:
The BCQ proved to be a reliable and psychometrically sound self-report instrument to assess BZ craving in a general practice sample of long-term BZ users.