Substance use disorder diagnostic schedule (SUDDS): the equivalence and validity of a computer-administered and an interviewer-administered format.

In order to evaluate the equivalence of interviewer-administered and computer-administered forms of the substance use disorder diagnostic schedule (SUDDS), both forms were presented to 100 substance-dependent inpatients. An additional 101 psychiatric outpatients were administered one form or the other. For patients who received both forms of the SUDDS, the percentage agreement ranged from 96% for the classification of a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol abuse/dependence to 88% for the classification of current diagnosis of alcohol abuse/dependence (kappa coefficients ranged from 0.709 to 0.865). Overall agreement with a clinician diagnosis (validity) and the two forms of administration varied from 100% for computer-generated diagnosis of current alcohol abuse/dependence to 71% for computer-generated lifetime diagnosis of drug abuse/dependence, when stratified by number of symptoms reported. No consistent differences were found in the performances of the two forms of the SUDDS, and we conclude that they may be used interchangeably.