This article describes the psychometric characteristics of two major assessment instruments used in a World Health Organization (WHO) clinical trial: (a) Alcohol Timeline Followback (TLFB, which assesses daily drinking patterns), and (b) Inventory of Drinking Situations (IDS, which assesses antecedents to "heavy" drinking). Clients (N = 308) were outpatient alcohol abusers from four countries (Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Sweden). Generally, the Alcohol TLFB and IDS were shown to be reliable and valid with outpatient alcohol abusers in four countries, and in three languages. These results suggest that the Alcohol TLFB and the IDS can be used in clinical and research settings with Swedish-, Spanish-, and English-speaking alcohol abusers.

The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of alexithymia by means of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) in 60 male outpatients with alcohol dependence showing various durations of abstinence. Alexithymia ( ≧ 74 points on TAS) was found in 48% of subjects. In patients with a shorter duration of abstinence ( < 1 year) both total scores of TAS as well as the scores for all three sub scales were significantly higher than in subjects abstaining for more than 1 year. The findings may suggest a negative relationship between alexithymia and maintaining abstinence in male alcoholic outpatients.

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The present results suggest the following: (i) alcohol dependence is not associated with any major alterations in taste responses to sucrose solutions, (ii) sweet liking is a phenotypic marker of male alcoholics with a paternal history of alcoholism.

The concept of psychological resilience is significant in analyzing the differences in mental health of incarcerated women and may help to create conditions that are conducive to reducing negative effects of prisoners staying in conditions of institutional constraint.

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Orexin or its receptor is a potential target for relapse prevention treatment, but further study with long-term observation is needed to verify the usefulness of blood orexin determination as a marker of alcohol relapse risk.

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