Hi there. I hope to find an assessment tool to evaluate the severity of a person’s substance abuse and provides a comprehensive overview of a person’s addiction-related issues. Do you have any recommendations?

Welcome.

Thank you for the information.

You may try the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). The ASI is a semi-structured interview designed to address seven potential problem areas in substance-abusing patients: medical status, employment and support, drug use, alcohol use, legal status, family/social status, and psychiatric status. In 1 hour, a skilled interviewer can gather information on recent (past 30 days) and lifetime problems in all the problem areas. The ASI provides an overview of problems related to substance, rather than focusing on any single area. The ASI is usable effectively to explore problems within any adult group of individuals who report substance abuse as their major problem. It has been used with psychiatrically ill, homeless, pregnant, and prisoner populations, but its major use has been with adults seeking treatment for substance abuse problems. The ASI provides two scores: severity ratings are subjective ratings of the client’s need for treatment, derived by the interviewer; composite scores are measures of problem severity during the prior 30 days and are calculated by a computerized scoring program. The ASI has been used extensively for treatment planning and outcome evaluation. Outcome evaluation packages for individual programs or treatment systems are available. Researchers have used the ASI for a wide variety of clinical outcome studies.

You could find more information below:
McLellan, A.T., Luborsky, L., O’Brien, C.P. & Woody, G.E. (1980). An improved diagnostic instrument for substance abuse patients: The Addiction Severity Index. Journal of Nervousn& Mental Diseases, 168, 26-33.