ساخت و بررسی کارآیی پنج آزمون تصویری ارزیابی ولع‌ مصرف در معتادان مواد افیونی

Objectives: The aim of this study was to provide a visual task for the evaluation of craving in opiate abusers, by implementing visual cues inducing craving. Method: 175 opiate abusers who had presented to the National Center for Addiction Studies in Iran in eleven months of the years 1385 and 1386 participated in the study. The subjects were divided into five groups (heroin injecting, heroin sniffing, heroin smoking, crystalline heroin (locally known as crack) smoking, and opium ingestion/smoking). The test was developed in the following order: identifying visual cues which could induce craving in interactive meetings between professionals and opiate abusers, categorization and providing the effective pictures from the list of cues, rating the severity of craving induced through the pictures by addicts, final categorization and setting, providing the computerized visual cue-induced tasks in different groups, determining the scores of opiate induction and evaluating the reliability of the tasks in craving induction. All subjects completed demographic questionnaires, Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Beck Depression Inventory, Agonist Effect Symptoms Checklist, Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms Checklist, and Raven IQ Test. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic methods and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results: The mean score of induced craving was significantly higher in crack smokers and heroin injectors in comparison with opium abuser groups (F=12.21, p<0.001). Tukey test showed significant difference between drug craving scores in heroin and opium abusers (I-J=27.89, p<0.001) and also between crack smokers and opium abusers (I-J=27.89, p<0.001). The evaluation of the reliability of results in craving induction tasks by Cronbach’s alpha and split-half reliability, showed a good reliability in most tasks (except for some cues in opium tasks). Craving was negatively correlated with age (r= -0.26, p<0.001), abusing duration (r= -0.23, p<0.001) and positively with family problems in ASI (r=0.18, p<0.05). Conclusion: Providing a task for the evaluation of craving induction in different groups of opiate abusers, with an appropriate validity and reliability, can help to a better understanding about the dimensions of drug craving through neuroimaging studies, pre-and post-treatment evaluations, and assessing different treatment protocol effects on the craving control. Also, this method can be used to assess the relationship of craving to other features of addiction.