"Stage of change" by drug problem in concurrent opioid, cocaine, and cigarette users

Within the field of addiction, the majority of work regarding "stages and processes of change" has focused on single drug problems, such as cigarette smoking or alcohol use. However, the majority of the substance abuse treatment population present with more than one substance use disorder. This article reports the results of the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) in a sample of 41 methadone-maintained, opioid-dependent male veterans who had concurrent problems of cigarette and cocaine dependence. These volunteers were given a URICA for each of their three drug problems, followed by a repeated administration three to five days later. All the stage-of-change scale scores showed excellent internal consistency and stability across the three- to five-day interval for all three drug problems, thus confirming the reliability of the measure in this population. URICA scores were lowest on the precontemplation stage, with higher and approximately equivalent scores on the other three stage measures. Most surprising was that these profile scores were almost identical across the three drugs tested, suggesting limits to the validity of this measure with this population.