1. The Substance Abuse Screening Test (SAST) is designed to screen out survey respondents who do not have a substance abuse problem (The Board of Regents, 2014). More specifically, the test is designed to be administered to teenagers and young adults, from 13 years old to 30 years old (The Board of Regents, 2014). Published in 1993, The SAST is authored by Terry Hibpshman, and Sue Larson (The Board of Regents, 2014). According to The Board of Regents (2014), the test takes five minutes to administer. In addition, as of 2002, its price is $56 per kit (which includes 50 response forms, 50 observation reports, and a 34-page manual) (The Board of Regents, 2014). Individually, the 50 response forms and 50 observation reports each cost $21, and the manual (by itself) costs $29 (The Board of Regents, 2014). In order to interpret scores, the SAST provides three different procedures (The Board of Regents, 2014). Subsequently, by placing “raw scores” into one out of four “risk levels”, a standardized score of 100 is obtained with a standard deviation of 15, numbers which aid in determining the likelihood of a test respondent not being a substance abuser (The Board of Regents, 2014).
2. According to The Board of Regents (2014), the validity of the test is high, as the authors of the SAST reported a significant difference between test groups, based on gender, age, and race. However, according to The Board of Regents (2014), the reliability of the test is low for at least a couple of reasons: the authors failed to take into account the fact that psychometric measures for substance abuse treatment should be accounted for in the SAST, as well as the fact that the authors supplied inadequate information about the samples they used to determine a standardization score (The Board of Regents, 2014).
3. The SAST has some benefits that are noteworthy. For example, it is a valid test – statistically-speaking, and it is inexpensive, and easy to administer (The Board of Regents, 2014). However, the SAST is not a diagnostic test – it is intended only for screening purposes (The Board of Regents, 2014). Like other alcohol and substance abuse screening tests, such as the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST), the SAST has a strong likelihood to erroneously “weed out” respondents who are, in fact, substance abusers, due to the fact that honest self-reporting is required in order for the assessment tool to be effective (HubPages, 2015). Thus, faking and the likelihood of false negatives are possible (The Board of Regents, 2014). Moreover, many self-report screening tests, such as the SAST, focus heavily on drug and alcohol dependence, and are limited in their sensitivity to respondents’ scores that do not reveal an almost obvious level of chemical dependency (World Health Organization, 2006).
4. I would not rely exclusively on this test, due to its serious limitations. However, I might use it as a very minor adjunct to mental health therapy, in order to determine the extent (if any) of self-medication issues. That is, in my practice, if a patient is diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder, the test might help determine the extent of comorbidity with other mental illnesses – although it is not designed specifically for this use. This is only one of the reasons that I would not place a high degree of faith in the SAST – as it simply is not a very reliable test. Moreover, its practicality for those in the behavioral health field is limited.
5. To conclude, the SAST is an easily-administered self-report assessment to determine the likelihood that a respondent is not a substance abuser. However, the SAST is only a screening tool, and its authors are unable to produce any positive data on its reliability, and it is further hampered by its lack of rationale for its standardization sample. I find little value of this test to the behavioral health community due to its many limitations, and drawbacks. Although it is cheap to purchase and easy to administer, the SAST lacks testing sensitivity, and is not reliable.
References
HubPages. (10 Jan. 2015). (n.p.). Screening and assessment tools for substance abuse
counselors. Retrieved 10 Jun. 2016 from http://hubpages.com/health/Screening-and-
The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska and the Buros Center for Testing. (2014).
Substance Abuse Screening Test. Reviewed by Kelley, M.L., & Shirley, M.C. Retrieved
10 Jun. 2016 from <A
href="http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir
ect=true&db=mmt&AN=test.1785&site=ehost-live&scope=site">Substance Abuse
Screen
World Health Organization (WHO). (2006). Validation of the alcohol, smoking, and substance
involvement screening test (ASSIST) and pilot brief intervention: a technical report of
Phase II findings of the WHO ASSIST Project. Retrieved 10 Jun. 2016 from
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/activities/assist_technicalreport_phase2_final.pdf
