Substance abuse is a common problem among persons receiving treatment for psychiatric disorders. Persons with major mental disorders are especially vulnerable to negative consequences which may result from such drinking behavior. Thus, accurate assessment of alcohol use in this population is essential. However, the psychometric properties of self- report alcohol assessment instruments have not been well-investigated in psychiatric populations. Further, psychiatric patients often experience acute psychiatric symptomatology and memory impairment which may decrease the reliability of their self-reported drinking behavior over time. The influence of these factors on test-retest reliability of three alcohol use screening measures will be examined in an inpatient psychiatric sample and compared with an age-and gender-matched community sample. It is expected that (a) psychiatric patients will exhibit less consistency(i.e., lower test-retest reliability) in their self-reported alcohol use than their non-psychiatric counterparts; and (b) within the psychiatric sample, greater levels of symptomatology and poorer memory performance will predict less consistent self-reports of drinking patterns and problems.
