Publications [#44946] of Kathryn Whetten

Journal Articles

  1. Whetten, K., S. Reif, M. Swartz, R. Stevens, J. Ostermann, L. Hanisch, J. Eron. "A Brief Mental Health and Substance Abuse Screener For Persons with HIV." AIDS Patient Care and STDS 19.2 (2005): 23-29.
    (last updated on 2006/01/07)

    Abstract:
    Mental illness and substance abuse are common among HIV-infected individuals and are associated with negative outcomes, including poor medication adherence. Therefore, quick and effective methods for detecting these co-occurring disorders are necessary for health care practitioners. This article reports on the creation and preliminary testing of a brief screening tool, the Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Symptoms Screener (SAMISS). The 13-item screener was developed primarily from existing scales and administered to HIV-infected individuals receiving care at Infectious Diseases clinics in the Southeast. To assess the validity of the SAMISS, a subset of those who screened positive for both mental illness symptoms and substance use problems (n=207) were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID). The positive predictive value of the screener in comparison to the SCID was 98.6% for mental disorders and 98.6% for substance use disorders. The agreement between specific screener symptoms and their corresponding SCID diagnoses was relatively high for alcohol dependence (κ =.50, p<0.001), drug dependence (κ =.30, p<0.001), and drug abuse (κ =.42, p<0.001). The finding that the screener is highly predictive of having a general mental disorder and substance use disorder among those screening positive for mental illness symptoms and substance use problems, as well as its brevity and ease of administration, make it a useful tool to detect symptoms of co-occurring disorders so that patients can be referred to mental health and substance abuse specialists. The screener is not a diagnostic instrument and has limited value in predicting specific psychiatric diagnoses.

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