This study was designed to explore the effects of moral development on the relationship between combat intensity and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder. The effect of combat intensity on PTSD Interview total scores and several individual stress disorder symptom ratings was substantial in a Low Moral Development sample, but negligible in a High Moral Development group. These data suggest that moral development may blunt the effect of combat severity on PTSD. These effects were strongest on items that describe reexperiencing of the trauma and exaggerated arousal. Possible interpretations of the results and several caveats were discussed.

The authors sought to determine whether early assessment of newly abstinent alcoholic/addicted patients can help identify those patients at risk for later anxiety disorder (AD). Diagnoses of AD were made after 3 weeks. From a sample of 642 consecutive outpatients and inpatients, 294 were assessed as having only substance‐related disorders (SRD) and 36 had both an SRD and an AD. The remaining 312 patients had other comorbid conditions with SRD. After 3 weeks of abstinence (Time 2), a psychiatrist made a current DSM‐III‐R diagnosis based on all available data. This study revealed that the following characteristics at Time 1 (intake) were associated with diagnosis of an AD at Time 2: female sex, history of panic attacks or suicidal ideation, previous outpatient care, previous antidepressant or neuroleptic medication, and higher scores on most of the self‐rated scales and all of the psychiatric scales.

The authors determined interrelationships among 61 items in a scale designed to assess the severity of substance-related disorder (SRD) and develop subscales that measure distinct substance-related areas of dysfunction. They evaluated 642 outpatients with items previously developed among patients with SRDs. Trained interviewers administered the Minnesota Substance Abuse Problem Scales (M-SAPS), which uses responses to yes/no (lifetime) questions. A factor analysis of items was compared with data from patients and addiction psychiatrists to measure the concurrent validity of the M-SAPS factors, yielding 37 items in three factors: Psychiatric-Behavioral Problems (14 items), Social-Interpersonal Problems (11 items), and Addiction-Dependence Symptoms (12 items). These three scales correlate with 10 scales/assessments concurrently collected independently of the M-SAPS, yielding a brief, valid, interviewer-administered, substance-related problem scale that assesses SRD severity in three distinct areas.