Validation Study of the Turkish Version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale in Male Alcohol Dependent Inpatients

Objective: By modifying an interview-based questionnaire (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale: YBOCS-hd), Anton, Moak, and Latham (1995) developed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 14 queries, the Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS), which includes items to evaluate both total craving and its obsessive and compulsive components. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity and factorial structure of the Turkish translation of the Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) in male alcohol dependent inpatients. Method: The study was conducted with hospitalized patients between August 2008 and March 2009 in Bakirkoy State Hospital for Mental Health and Neurological Disorders, AMATEM (Alcohol and Drug Research, Treatment and Education Center) in Istanbul. Participants were 155 consecutively admitted male alcohol dependents. Patients were investigated with the OCDS, the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST), the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The internal consistency of the Turkish version of OCDS was evaluated by the Cronbach's Alpha test, and for validity investigation, the PACS is used. Calculation of both 10 and 14 item solutions according to Dutch (D) and French (F) method and comparison of the results with D, F and Italian studies were done. Results: Turkish version of the both 10 item and 14 item solutions were found to be compatible with original scales. In alcohol dependents, the internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.83 for "Obsessive-D" scale, 0.84 for "Compulsive-D" scale, 0.89 for "OCDS-D", 0.81 for "Obsessive-F" scale, 0.77 for "Compulsive-F" scale and 0.86 for "OCDS-F". For each of the items, the corrected item-total correlation values were between 0.49 and 0.75 (p< 0.001) for OCDS-D, whereas they were between 0.52 and 0.78 (p< 0.001) for OCDS-F. Test-retest correlations were 0.64 for "Obsessive-D" scale, 0.74 for "Compulsive-D" scale, 0.75 for " OCDS-D", 0.65 for "Obsessive-F" scale, 0.72 for "Compulsive-F" scale, 0.74 for "OCDS-F". Subscale and total scores of OCDS-D and OCDS-F were correlated significantly with MAST, PACS and amount of drinks per day (p< 0.001). Discussion: Results which were obtained in this study suggests that the both 10 and 14 item Turkish versions of the OCDS are reliable and valid for alcohol dependent inpatients. Also Turkish version of the scale was found to be compatible with the results of Dutch, French and Italian studies, although 10 item solution did not show superiority to 14 item solution.