The Alcohol Dependence Scale: a validation study among inpatient alcoholics

The present study investigated whether the degree of alcohol dependence, as operationalized by Skinner and Allen's Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS), covaried with concurrent and predictive criteria in a sample of hospitalized alcoholics. As previously reported, the ADS was found to be unidimensional and internally consistent. However, compared to Skinner and Allen's findings, these inpatients had significantly lower ADS scores. Correlations with concurrent measures of cognitive functioning, psychiatric and physical symptoms tended to be smaller than, but in the same direction as, those previously reported using an outpatient sample. ADS scores did not significantly predict attrition from inpatient treatment, self-reported alcohol consumption over 9-month follow-up or duration of aftercare involvement. Patients who relapsed reported significantly higher ADS scores at admission, however, the magnitude of this relationship was modest (r = .16). In its present form, the ADS appears to have fair concurrent validity, but limited predictive utility within a sample of inpatient alcoholics.