Manual for the Benzodiazepine Dependence Questionnaire (BDEPQ)

52 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
on some structured interview with subjects. No information on the interrater
reliabilityisavailable so those wishing to use the scale should conduct
reliability trails after interviewers have been trained.
Clinical Institute Assessment of Withdrawal - Benzodiazepines (CIAW-B)
The CIAW-B was developed using the most sophisticated methods employed
on any of the withdrawal rating scales. Items were selected from a pool if
they showed changes when maximum changes in blood BZD levels were detected
during withdrawal (Busto et al., 1989). This means that the scale
is most responsive to acute withdrawal and is perhaps most suited to use
in studies of withdrawal. This scale requires training and fortunately video
tapes are available for training.
Physician Withdrawal Checklist (PWC) This scale, described in Rickels
et al. (1990b), is perhaps the most widely used BZD withdrawal scale in
the published literature (Rickels et al., 1990a, 1990b, for example). Unfortunately
little information about its properties have been published. Again
it is completed by a trained clinician.
Benzodiazepine Withdrawal Symptom Questionnaire (BWSQ) The
BWSQ (Tyrer et al., 1990) provides the only speci c self-report measure
of BZD withdrawal. Two forms are available, one to assess any history
of BZD withdrawal symptoms and the other to examine symptoms over a
de ned period. This scale attempts to distinguish between occurance of
symptoms at any time and when associated with changes in BZD dose by
asking for separate ratings under these two circumstances. Little psychometric
information is available.
Many authors (Lader, 1983� Noyes et al., 1991� Petursson & Lader, 1981�
Power et al., 1985� Rickels et al., 1990b� Schweizer et al., 1991) employ general
measures of anxiety such as the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (Hamilton, 1959,
HARS). Although this practice is widespread it would be preferable to use the
CIAW-B (Busto et al., 1989) or some other BZD withdrawal scale.
Acknowledgment
The author acknowledge Maree Teesson, Richard Mattick, Peter Lovibond,
Libby Barron, Margaret Eagers, and Gail Merlin for their assistance. This manual
has bene ted from Rebecca McKetin's pro reading. Research reported iin
this manual was conducted as part of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Clinical Psychology, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales. Funding
was provided by theSchool of Psychology and National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre, University of New South Wales.