With only 10 items, the DAST-10 can be self-administered in about 2 minutes, making it suitable for routine screening and other clinical usage, resulting in a quantitative index of the consequences of drug abuse for a particular patient.
The DAST-10 is a shorter version of the 20-item DAST-20, but correlates almost perfectly with the longer scale despite taking less time.
The DAST is an instrument for systematic assessment of drug use and abuse. It was developed by Harvey Skinner at York University in 1982 as a way to provide valuable information to practitioners for identifying problems as early as possible, tailoring interventions to a patient, and measuring the effectiveness of treatments.
Nearly one in five people have used illegal drugs or misused prescription drugs in the past year, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, and this figure may be growing larger and more deadly due to the ongoing opioid epidemic (Rudd et al., 2016).
The societal costs of substance use disorders may exceed $740 billion in the United States alone, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and clinicians are often well aware of the personal toll of drugs on patients and their loved ones. The healthcare providers who frequently encounter drug abuse may be in a position to measure the presence and severity of substance abuse issues, then offer help before it is too late.
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