Preliminary Development of a Brief Cannabis Use Disorder Screening Tool: The Cannabis Use Disorder Identification...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Rising rates of cannabis use disorder (CUD) necessitate efficient screening tools for vulnerable populations.
• Current screening methods may not be suitable for busy clinical environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a shortened version of the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R).
• To create an efficient screening tool for identifying cannabis use disorder in clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Item response theory and traditional statistical methods were used to shorten the CUDIT-R to three items.
• Four item selection techniques were employed to identify the optimal short form.
• Receiver operating characteristic curves evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of the CUDIT-SF.

Main Results:

• The 3-item CUDIT-Short Form (CUDIT-SF) demonstrated good reliability (alpha=0.66-0.80).
• The CUDIT-SF accurately identified individuals meeting DSM-5 criteria for CUD (78.26%-78.31%).
• High agreement was observed between the CUDIT-SF and the full CUDIT-R in classifying CUD.

Conclusions:

• The CUDIT-SF is a potentially valuable tool for stepwise screening in busy clinical settings.
• Further validation studies with larger, diverse samples are recommended to confirm its utility.