Page 102 - PhD GT

(mean score 1.09) and the lowest individual item mean was for item 4 (0.14). The full range of items were used by this sample as well.
When asked about the appropriateness and relevance of the items, respondents stated that they had no problems with any of the items but a small number of people who had been abstinent for a significant length of time suggested the addition of an instruction “if you were to start using again, would you...” alongside some of the items. This suggested a potential difference in understanding among the respondents. This possibility was also suggested by the fact that, with reference to items 4, 5 and 6 those individuals responding positively to these items may have used the understanding “when I am using” whilst those who responded negatively may have been saying “I don’t use at all” or “I don’t drink at all”. As this finding emerged only when the data were collated, it was too late to check further the meanings given to individual items in this part of the study.
Of the 45 respondents, 17.7% scored zero. Of the smaller sample that had been abstinent for one month or more (n = 22), 31.8% obtained a total score of zero; of these, 3 had been abstinent for several years. One individual who had been abstinent for four years gave a positive response to item 1, ‘Do you find yourself thinking about when you will next be able to have another drink or take more drugs?’ thus demonstrating that this cognitive item in the scale could be found to persist over a considerable period of time. The full range of items was used by those respondents scoring above zero.
4.4.3 Study 2: Discussion
The Leeds Dependence Questionnaire was designed to be a measure of the psychological phenomenon of dependence as described above. Markers of dependence are operationalised into ten cognitive and behavioural items which refer to thoughts and beliefs about use of the substance. As with all behaviours, thoughts and beliefs about the behaviour endure in the absence of the behaviour itself and it has been argued that it is the endurance of beliefs about the nature of substance use and the relationship of the individual with the substance and its use which accounts for the persistence of dependence (and the frequency of relapse following a period of abstinence or controlled use). If the extent to which such thoughts and beliefs persist is predictive of relapse as has been suggested then their measurement must be of considerable clinical utility. In the present main study, the aim is to elucidate the nature and course of change in these thoughts and behaviours and the ability of the LDQ to measure them in the absence of the substance use itself was therefore of paramount importance.
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