[Development and reliability study of the adolescent inhalant use severity scale].

OBJECTIVE To develop a scale in order to investigate the severity of inhalant use in adolescents and to conduct reliability and validity studies of this scale. METHOD A questionnaire was developed by conducting interviews with two groups: professionals working with adolescent inhalant users and inhalant-using adolescents. This questionnaire was developed into a 21-item scale. This was applied by two different interviewers to 50 adolescents at Bakirköy Mental Health Hospital Inhalant Use Research and Treatment Center for Children and Adolescents. Two other professionals applied the Visual Analog Scale to the same 50 adolescents to evaluate the severity of inhalant use. The correlation between the two interviewer scores and the scores obtained from the Visual Analog Scale and the 21-item scale was evaluated. Addicts and non-addicts were evaluated using SCID-I and the scores of addicts and non-addicts were compared. Test re-test reliability of the scale was evaluated by applying the scale in the 10-15 days following the first administration. RESULTS The correlation between the questionnaire scores and the Visual Analog Scale scores was adequate (0.72). The mean scores of addicts were higher than those of non-addicts (p<0.001). The Cronbach alpha value was 0.84. Three items had no internal consistency and the same items' interrater and test re-test reliability correlations were low. CONCLUSION It is thought that when the 3 inconsistent items are removed the 18-item Yeniden Inhalant Use Severity Scale (YUKUD) is a reliable and valid measure to evaluate the severity of inhalant use in adolescents and that it can be used in related research.