Brief assessment of drinking problems in male and female psychiatric inpatients

Used discriminant function analysis to identify and cross-validate a subset of items on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) that in combination maximally distinguish between male and female psychiatric inpatients (N = 120) diagnosed as having alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related disorders. Classification of Ss by use of the composite variate showed 88% overall accuracy with an 83% valid positive rate in the validation sample, but only 65% overall accuracy and a 10% valid positive rate in an independent cross-validation group. The reliability of the MAST interview did not decline at higher levels of alcohol involvement.