Short Understanding of Substance Abuse Scale

Humphreys and colleagues (Humphreys, Greenbaum et al. 1996) developed the Short Understanding of Substance Abuse Scale (SUSS) as a modified version of the Understanding of Alcoholism Scale. The latter scale was developed originally by Moyers and Miller (Moyers and Miller 1993) to assess alcoholics’ beliefs about the etiology and treatment of alcoholism. Two changes were made. First, the scale was shortened from 50 items to 20 items. Second, the wording of the items, as well the inclusion of some new items, has been broadened to focus on both alcohol and drug use. Three factor analytically derived subscales have been identified: disease model, psychosocial model, and eclectic orientation.