The development and application of a questionnaire to assess the changing personalities of substance addicts during the first year of recovery.

The Addiction Recovery Index, a 60 item questionnaire, was developed and administered to 889 recovering substance addicts with a view to measuring levels of the primary trait of Neuroticism as well as six accompanying subtraits during the first 12 months of recovery. Good reliability and validity scores were achieved for the ARI and results indicated that recovering addict's overall Neuroticism scores reduced as a function of Substance Free Time (F(11,877) = 338.37, p < .0001). It was also noted that the individual sub-trait scores decreased, but various anomalies, particularly with Anxiety, were recorded.