A self-rating instrument for patients undergoing barbiturate or benzodiazepine withdrawal was developed based on Zung's self-rating instrument for anxiety disorders. It can be used to assess the severity of symptoms during the withdrawal process.
Instrument development:
(1) started with 20 questions from Zung's anxiety self-rating instrument
(2) added 11 additional questions
(3) reduced final list to 14 questions asking about symptoms during the past week. The first 6 are from Zung's instrument and the last 8 are from added group.
Responses
Points
none or little of the time
1
some of the time
2
a good part of the time
3
most or all of the time
4
self-rating scale for withdrawal =
= SUM(points assigned for the 14 questions)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 14
• maximum score: 56
• The higher the score, the greater the symptoms associated with drug withdrawal.
• As the patient recovers, the scores should become lower (an anxious person may not become asymptomatic).
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