Abstract

The development of an addiction considerably damages physical health, social functioning, and quality of life; however, people with substance use disorders act as if they were unaware of how drug and alcohol use contribute to their difficulties. This is one of the main reasons why they fail to address the problem and remain in a self-destructive spiral. The aim of this study was to construct and validate a diagnostic questionnaire for detecting an individual’s level of awareness of drug use, its consequences, and associated illnesses. Three sequential phases were carried out: theoretical (construction and production of adequately worded items), experimental (administration of the questionnaire to a sample of 124 patients with a substance use disorder), and analytical (factor analysis, temporal and internal reliability, discriminant validity, and sensitivity to change during treatment). The ICE-A showed a one-dimensional structure (all the items that make up the questionnaire measure a single variable that can be presented as a total score), an adequate level of internal consistency, and high temporal stability over a 1-month period. The scores obtained by the subjects at 12 months of treatment were significantly higher than those obtained by the same subjects at 6 months of treatment. This questionnaire could allow therapists to monitor the psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes of their addicted patients, assuming that the greater their awareness of their disease, the greater their self-care and improvement.