Assessment of addictive disorders. The use of clinical reflection and hypotheses testing.

This article examines how a multidimensional conceptual schema (biologic, sociologic, psychodynamic, and behavioral) can be applied directly to clinical practice methods during the assessment of addictive disorders. This practice is offered to minimize some of the conceptual problems often associated with the diagnostic process. Clinical reflection and hypotheses testing are considered as meta-models that can effectively guide the conduct of clinical assessment. The purpose of this approach is to provide a parsimonious means of organizing and verifying clinical information, thus making the assessment process both manageable and teachable. The ability to manage and teach clinical methods is considered as an essential step toward the development of a practice theory in the addictions.