The Obsessive Compulsive Cocaine Use Scale: development and initial validation of a self-rated instrument for the quantification of thoughts about cocaine use.

BACKGROUND

Craving is a hallmark of addiction and characterized by obsessive thoughts about, and compulsive urges to use, a substance. While craving is frequently thought of as primarily being a feature of acute withdrawal, there is evidence to suggest that it increases in strength over extended periods of abstinence. While several measures are available to assess acute craving states, there remains a lack of clinical measures appropriate for capturing the enduring cognitive aspects of urges to use drugs. The present study was designed to develop and validate a measure of obsessive-compulsive thoughts in cocaine-dependent individuals.

METHODS

The proposed 14-item Obsessive Compulsive Cocaine Use Scale (OCCUS) was administered to 107 individuals: 55 participants meeting diagnostic criteria for cocaine dependence and 52 recreational users of cocaine. In addition to the OCCUS, participants also completed the Drug Abuse Screening Test, Cocaine Craving Questionnaire-Now, and Social Desirability Scale of the California Personality Inventory.

RESULTS

Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the OCCUS fit the two-factor structure of the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale on which it was based, independently assessing the "obsessive" and "compulsive" aspects of cocaine dependence. The OCCUS demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity.

CONCLUSION

The proposed measure is a promising step towards the successful capture of the long-term cognitive features of craving for cocaine via self-report, and should represent a useful tool for clinical and research use.