Validation of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) With Bulgarian Substance Dependent Individuals

Abstract

Background: The Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) is a 23-item self-report questionnaire that assesses four well-validated personality risk factors for substance misuse (Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking, Anxiety Sensitivity, and Hopelessness). While the SURPS has been used extensively with adolescents at risk for substance dependence, its properties with adult substance-dependent populations have been understudied. Further, the validity of the Bulgarian version of the SURPS has not been evaluated. The aims of the present study were to examine the factor structure of the Bulgarian version of the SURPS, its psychometric properties, and its ability to distinguish individuals with substance dependence from healthy controls.Methods: Participants included 238 individuals ages 18 to 50 (45% female): 36 “pure” (i.e., mono-substance dependent) heroin users, 34 “pure” amphetamine users, 32 polysubstance users, 64 controls with no history of substance dependence, 43 unaffected siblings of heroin users, and 29 unaffected siblings of amphetamine users. We explored the factor structure of the Bulgarian version of the SURPS with confirmatory factor analyses, examined its reliability and validity, and tested for group differences between substance dependent and non-dependent groups.Results: Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) replicated the original four-factor model of the SURPS. The four subscales of the SURPS demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas ranged from 0.71 to 0.85) and adequate concurrent validity. Significant group differences were found on the Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking subscales, with the three substance dependent groups scoring higher than controls.Conclusions: The SURPS is a valid instrument for measuring personality risk for substance use disorders in the Bulgarian population. The Bulgarian version of the SURPS demonstrates adequate to good reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity. Its ability to distinguish between groups with and without a history of substance dependence was specific to externalizing traits such as Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking, on which opiate, stimulant, and polysubstance dependent individuals scored higher than non-dependent controls.

Validation of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale in Lithuanian population

“…The SURPS had appropriate internal consistency and criterion validity. These findings were similar to the original [9] and other SURPS scale validation studies [26,[28][29][30][31]33]. There were small to medium correlations of SURPS internalizing trait subscales (hopelessness and anxiety sensitivity) with impulsivity measured by the BIS-11 and the SURPS impulsiveness subscale.…”

“…Scores of the SURPS impulsivity subscale had medium correlations with the PHQ-4 depression and anxiety scores. Similar correlation of internalizing traits with impulsivity was also found in other SURPS studies [9,24,25,28,45]. The tendency for higher hopelessness and anxiety could be associated with higher impulsivity level as impulsive behaviour might reveal itself in negative affects [54].…”

“…The scale was validated in adolescents and young adults populations and has shown good reliability and also a predictive value in longitudinal studies [24]. The scale has demonstrated high intercultural validity and reliability, and is adapted for different languages, including French [24][25][26], English [9,24,26], Irish [24], German [24], Dutch [27], Bulgarian [28], Spainish [29,30], Turkish [31], and others. However, only few studies included patients with clinical diagnosis of addiction [28,32,33].…”

Validation of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale’s (Surps) Russian Language Version

“…Інше дослідження було зосереджено на визначенні прогностичної валідності шкали з ув'язненими чоловіками та виявило, що пошук стимуляції та тривожність були пов'язані з вживанням наркотиків [15]. Примітно, що жодне дослідження до теперішнього часу не вивчало властивості SURPS серед зразків спільнот залежних від речовини осіб [19].…”

Neurocognitive and psychiatric markers for addiction: Common vs. specific (endo)phenotypes for opiate and stimulant dependence

“…We only used the hopelessness subscale because the other subscales overlap with other measures already included. We used the recently validated Bulgarian version of the SURPS (Long et al, 2018).…”