The Psychometric Properties of the Desires for Drug Questionnaire (DDQ) among IraniansMethamphetamine Abusers

Drug-craving as a multidimensional subjective experience recently has beenaccepted as an addiction hallmark. Desire for Drug Questionnaire or DDQ isawell-known questionnaire for measurement of drug craving severity. This study aimed to investigate thepsychometric properties of the DDQamong Iranian methamphetamine abusers.

DDQ was translated from English into Farsi by language experts. The questionnaire was thenused for evaluation of craving among 50male methamphetamine abusers. Then, DDQ questionnaire'scores wassubjected to an exploratory principal components factor analysis. To assess construct validityof DDQ, the model was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Internalconsistency was examined by calculating cronbach’s alpha.

Finally, the Persian version of DDQwas verified with 13 items and three factors. Three factors with high eigenvalues were identified by (PCA)that accounted for 70.63% of the total variance. Given the relative fit of the confirmatory factor model, the construct validity of the DDQ was verified.Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the total score of the questionnaire was 0.86.

The Farsi-translated version of DDQ questionnaires hadgood psychometric properties. The questionnaire could be considered as a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of drug craving level inIranian methamphetamine abusers