Abstract
Background:
Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive substance in the world. More importantly, caffeine evokes symptoms, which allow for its classification among substances of abuse. However, caffeine consumption is often neglected in the clinical context, particularly during treatment.
Methods and Materials:
The aim of the current study is to use Item Response Theory (IRT) to develop a caffeine dependency inventory according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), while also recording participant knowledge about the caffeine content in various foods and beverages.
Results:
Within a sample of n = 188 participants, none of the subjects displayed an entirely caffeine-free consumption behavior. Rather, a lower degree of knowledge regarding caffeine content in various caffeinated drinks correlated with a higher level of caffeine consumption (r = −0.15). A majority showed a low to moderate degree of caffeine use disorder (CUD) (M = 4.36 ± 4.18 [CI 3.75 to 4.96], range 0–16; Md = 3.0, IQR 1–7; skewness z = 4.78).
Conclusions:
To our knowledge, this has been the first German language study to apply an IRT approach to examining CUD, proposed by DSM-5 for clinical use.
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