Identifying drug-dependent persons in a survey: a note on methodological issues

A survey of 2,064 male persons in a rural area revealed that 423 (20.5 per cent) expressed craving for one or more abused substances. Close relationships were found between self-expressed craving and daily use of a drug. These data also suggest that in a large-scale survey, self-expressed craving and frequency of drug use could be used for fairly reliable estimates of the state of dependence on a drug.