Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

W orldwide, alcohol results in the deaths of 2.5 million people each year and causes 60 different types of diseases. 125 million people are affected by alcohol and other drugs. One in five Brazilians who use drugs meets criteria for dependence. Data from 2011 show that 31.8% of the Brazilian population drinks alcohol regularly compared with 16.9% in the U.S. WHO data estimate that 151 million people around the world suffer from depression and 26 million people from schizophrenia. About 844,000 people die by suicide each year. Despite these known problems, there are few tools to comprehensively assess individuals across multiple problem areas. This results in the need to conduct several assessments on the same person - one for mental state, another to classify their drug use, a third for involvement in criminal and judicial issues, and so on. The purpose of this study is to describe the process of translation and cultural adaptation of the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs - Initial (GAIN-I) and GAIN-Short Screener (GAIN-SS) for use in Brazil. The GAIN-I is a full biopsychosocial assessment, meeting major reporting requirements that integrates research and clinical practice for diagnosis, placement, individualized treatment planning, and program evaluation in the field of alcohol and other drug treatment. The GAIN-SS is a 23-item subset of items from the GAIN-I for screening purposes, so translation and adaptation of the GAIN-I applied equally to the GAIN-SS. The GAIN Assessment Building System (ABS) is a HIPAA-compliant, web-based system hosted by Chestnut Health Systems that allows for computer-based and interactive administration of the GAIN instruments. Currently, the GAIN-SS, GAIN-I and GAIN-ABS are being tested in a Brazilian sample. The details of this process, as well as the challenges involved into adapting a standardized assessment tool and a web-based system to a language different than its origin, will be discussed in this presentation.

Biography

Helo?sa Garcia Claro is a BSN, and completed her MSN degree in University of S?o Paulo (USP), Brazil. She is currently a PhD candidate from USP. She completed a Research Visiting Scholar program in University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2012, and a Research Intern Program at Chestnut Health Systems, Normal, Illinois in the same year. Her Bachelor thesis was awarded as best Bachelor?s thesis by the National Secretariat for Drug Policy from Brazil. She is a member of the Group of Studies on Alcohol and Other Drugs at the University of S?o Paulo since 2006