Problematic Substance Use Identified in the TBI Model Systems National Dataset

John D. Corrigan, PhD; Jennifer Bogner, PhD, Gary Lamb-Hart, MDiv, and Niccole Sivak-Sears, MS
Ohio Valley Center for Brain Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Ohio State University

This technical report is intended as a resource for researchers in traumatic brain injury (TBI) who are studying substance use disorders or would like to include a measure of this construct in the data they are collecting. While the measurement portions of this review are based on the TBI Model Systems methodology, that method is in turn based on the most widely used surveys of substance use in the general population - the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 1998) and the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1998). Thus, this information should be useful to researchers regardless of their involvement in the TBI Model Systems.

This report is organized into three sections:

• Research on Traumatic Brain Injury and Substance Abuse;
• Defining Problematic Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs; and
• Measurement of Substance Use in the TBI Model System.

The first two sections provide background information that is useful for considering measurement issues presented in the third.

You can download a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of the Problematic Substance Use Report (135k). (What is PDF and How do I use PDF Files?)

This technical report was contributed by the Ohio Regional TBI Model System at Ohio State University. Please contact John D. Corrigan, Ph.D., at for more information.

If you find the information in the COMBI useful, please mention it when citing sources of information. The information in this technical report may be cited as:

Corrigan, J., Bogner, J., Lamb-Hart, G., & Sivak-Sears, N. (2003). Technical report on problematic substance use variables. The Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury. http://www.tbims.org/combi/subst ( accessed ).