Screen of drug use: Diagnostic accuracy for cannabis use disorder

Publication date: Available online 11 February 2019

Source: Addictive Behaviors

Author(s): Quyen Q. Tiet, Yani Leyva, Kendall Browne, Rudolf Moos

Abstract

Objective

As cannabis has been legalized for medicinal and recreational use, rates of cannabis misuse and cannabis use disorder (CUD) have increased. However, only a small percentage of individuals with CUD seek treatment. A practical screening instrument is needed to detect CUD in primary care (PC) to address the needs of individuals with CUD. This study validates the 2-item Screen of Drug Use (SoDU) to screen for CUD in the PC setting.

Method

We used data from 1283 patients recruited in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) PC clinics. A total of 51 individuals (4%) met DSM-IV criteria for CUD (with or without other drug use disorders). A diagnosis of CUD based on the Mini International Diagnostic Interview (MINI) was used as the criterion.

Results

The SoDU was 100% sensitive (95% confidence interval [CI], 93.00% - 100%), and 87.50% specific (95% CI, 85.53% - 89.23%). When tested in subgroups of patients varying in age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational level, and PTSD status, the SoDU maintained 100% sensitivity in all subgroups; specificity ranged from 76.26% to 94.34%.

Conclusions

The SoDU is an appropriate instrument to screen for CUD in primary care. It is brief, easy to use, and has good concurrent diagnostic validity for diverse groups of patients.

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