OBJECTIVES: The Alcohol Urge Questionnaire(AUQ) has been used in alcohol dependence treatment and research. The goal of this study is to develop of the Korean Alcohol Urge Questionnaire(AUQ-K). METHODS: To examine the AUQ-K's psychometric properties, responses from 104 patients admitted in alcohol dependence treatment facility were investigated. RESULTS: The internal consistency of the 8-item AUQ-K, measured by coefficient alpha, was high(Cronbach's alpha =0.78). AUQ-K scores showed significant correlation when the retest interval was 1 day(p<0.01). The AUQ-K's validity was investigated using correlational analyses with two other craving scales[the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale(OCDS) and the Visual Analogue Scale(VAS)]. The high correlations were obtained between total AUQ-K scores and total OCDS scores, and between total AUQ-K scores and the VAS scores(p<0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: The AUQ-K is a reliable and valid short scale for measurement of self-reported alcohol craving. This scale may offer significant advantages over existing single-item measures of alcohol craving in the fields of alcohol dependence treatment and research.
Alcoholism ; Drinking ; Humans ; Psychometrics ; Reproducibility of Results

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association of SNP A and P1763 polymorphisms on dystrobrevin binding protein 1(DTNBP1) gene with smooth pursuit eye movement(SPEM) abnormality in Korean schizophrenic patients. METHODS: We measured SPEM function in 217 Korean schizophrenics(male 116, female 101) and divided them into two groups, one is a good SPEM function group and the other is a poor SPEM function group. We then analyzed SNP A polymorphism and P1763 polymorphism on DTNBP1 gene from their DNAs extracted from their blood. We compared the differences of genotype and allele distributions of the two polymorphisms on DTNBP1 gene between the two groups. RESULTS: The Ln S/N ratio(mean+/-SD) of the good SPEM function group was 4.39+/-0.33 and the ratio of poor SPEM function group was 3.17+/-0.71. There were no statistically significant differences of age and male/female ratio between the two groups. There were no significant differences of genotype or allele distributions of the SNP A polymorphism and P1763 polymorphism on DTNBP1 gene between the two schizophrenic groups divided by SPEM function. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that SNP A polymorphism and P1763 polymorphism on DTNBP1 gene might not be related to SPEM function abnormality in schizophrenia.
Alleles ; Carrier Proteins* ; DNA ; Female ; Genotype ; Humans ; Polymorphism, Genetic ; Pursuit, Smooth* ; Schizophrenia