Validation of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test--Thai version in northeast Thailand

This study was aimed to validate the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test-Thai version (MAST-T) which was compared to the psychiatric diagnosis based on DSM-III-R criteria, as a gold standard, among the northeast population of Thailand. Sixty-one pairs of male cases with alcohol use disorders (AUD) and controls were collected through routine examination of psychiatric outpatients, 18-65 years old, who visited the Khon Kaen Psychiatric Hospital or the Northeast Drug Dependence Treatment Center which is located in Khon Kaen province, northeast Thailand between November, 1996 and February, 1997. Controls were matched for each case by sex-age (+/- 5 years)--province--urbanization. They were interviewed using the MAST-T and a structured questionnaire. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that the optimum cutoff point > or = 11 on the MAST-T yields the best sensitivity and specificity (98.4% for each), along with an area under the curve of 0.998, indicating that it was sensitive and specific in discriminating AUD from non-AUD patients. This validation study of the MAST-Thai version underlines its applicability as a screening test for AUD among the northeast male Thai population.