Automated Brief Intake Interview for Drug Abuse

Phase I develops and evaluates a computer-assisted intake interview for drug abuse treatmentfacilities. The interview is derived from one presently used in a large study of drug abuse treatment inWashington DC. The questions appear on a computer screen and the interviewers type in the patients'responses. The interview is designed so that trained paraprofessionals can easily administer it. Thebasic interview requires only 30 minutes. Clinicians who wish more questions in a particular topic areaare able to select and add such questions from a computer-stored library. The computer software printsnarrative summaries of the interview findings, and preliminary treatment plans tailored to each patient.It also prints scores on several scales that suggest each patient's strengths and areas of need. Thecomputer-assisted interview and its associated software are evaluated in: an alpha test in which the staffsimulates interviews using the data from former patients; a beta test in which the computer-assistedinterview is used with actual patients; and a controlled, randomized comparison with other interview.