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The most commonly instrument used to measure quality of life in patients with addictive behaviors is the WHOQOL-BREF, developed by the World Health Organization. No studies have been found to explore the psychometric properties in Spanish clinical samples. This paper aims to study their reliability as well as the construct validity in a representative sample of patients and comparing the results to the data available tor the general population in Spain. A sample was recruited comprised of 523 subjects who were undergoing treatment with methadone in Madrid and Extremadura. A confirmatory factor analysis was completed to test the theoretically proposed structure and then an optimized-parallel analysis was done to establish the most adequate number of components. The result offers solid values for internal consistency both as concerns the items and the scales. The theoretical tetra-dimensional structure is confirmed in the sample although serious arguments are also found for considering its one-dimensionality. The structural relationship between the tour domains was studied. Tie WHOQOL-BREF proves to be a reliable and valid test for use on patients treated with methadone, providing a multi-dimensional measure of perceived quality of life that includes social and environmental factors of great importance in treating addiction problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol is probably the most consumed psychoactive drug in the world. Controlled consumption of alcohol is common, but for many individuals this consumption becomes an addiction. The progression from an habitual consumption of alcohol to abuse of the substance could be due to the existence of a differential sensitivity, which would be genetically determined, to the reinforcing and aversive effects of alcohol. Likewise, it has been suggested that environmental factors such as stress might be involved in the onset of alcoholism, influencing on such a differential sensitivity and, ultimately, on the consumption of alcohol. In this paper it is reviewed the experimental published data on each of the elements of the relationship between stress and ethanol. Thus, on the one hand they arc reviewed the main animals models of stress and, on the other hand, we approached the study of the reinforcing and aversive properties of ethanol, including data on the influence of variables such as age, sex, and previous experience with the drug. And, finally, we present a resume of data collected from animal research on the influence of stress on the perception of the motivational opposing properties of ethanol. Our purpose is help to clarify the existing knowledge about the relations between biological factors (such as sex or age) and environmental factors (previous experience and stress), and the behavior of alcohol intake, thus highlighting the importance of some factors of risk for developing alcoholism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument to assess the problematic use of new technologies (NT) in youth and adolescents. After the pilot study, an initial questionnaire of 35 items was developed. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of 2747 students from 5th grade to 5th university degree. Results from the analysis of reliability (Cronbach Alpha) point in all cases (full scale and subscales) values higher than .70. The appropriate analyses were conducted to establish convergent, clinical and construct validity. The final results point to the convenience to reducing the questionnaire to 26 items. The factorial structure point to seven factors, one for each considered NT (Internet, video games, mobile and television), plus other three, which grouped similar behaviour in the various NT. The suitability of the questionnaire is discusses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]