This is a short overview of a questionnaire used for substance abuse attitude testing in testing a CREATE (Curriculum Renewal and Evaluation of Addiction Training and Education) effects on Medical Students. My afterthoughts on substance abuse attitude testing are in the end of the article.

The survey overview

Questions 1-8 check the comfort level of a respondent.
Questions 9-38 deal with general attitudes.
Questions 39-51 deal students' attitudes to pregnancy.

In the first part of this substance abuse attitude testing sheet students had to answer to several question concerning the level of comfort when asking patients about various kinds of addictions (smoking, alcohol and drug) and talking about their effects. The second part deals mostly with students' view of illicit substances abuse in their neighborhood and at work as well as their opinions on personal effects of drug abusing.

The first part of this substance abuse attitude test was the most important in the whole survey for it checked the students' attitudes to pregnancy and substances abuse and their tolerance to them. Questions included smoking, drinking alcohol and drug use acceptance.

The sample questions may be found at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0978/is_3_27/ai_77480932/pg_2, but unfortunately there is no place on the Net where the full form of this substance abuse attitude testing sheet is available to download.

Afterthoughts

What were the effects of the survey? Almost none. It seems (as other uses of this questionnaire shows) that short term courses on the effects of drug abuse changes nothing is perception of this problem. Maybe somebody should think of some better way to spend money on drug use prevention? Some long-term courses or mandatory long-term help programs that deal with drug addicts' may be one of the solutions, but it is possible that we have to use some very different approach to changing people's attitude toward substance abuse, the one that will leave short-term courses and leaflets in favor of something else. But what would it be, I honestly don't know.

If you happen to have any idea on this subject, publish it. I've been looking for publications on this subject for a long time, but I was unable to find anything worthy of noticing.

Jeff Lakie is the founder of Rehab Resources a website providing information on drug and alcohol rehabilitaiton treatments.