SASSI is certainly not a magic wand. It is not recommended for use on its own; its function is to enhance and support the subjective assessment of a skilled and experienced practitioner. The more insight, skill and experience the worker brings to it, the subtler and more effective the SASSI will be but the SASSI is merely a tool for the toolbox of the skilled mechanic.
Currently, the SASSI is not normed on a UK population. It was first devised and tested on a US population some 30 years ago, and since then has been refined and re-tested within the States and in some other countries. This means that the level of statistical accuracy which is claimed for it applies only to a US population. With a UK population one has to assume that it will have a lower overall accuracy.
The SASSI is based on empirical data which is processed statistically; it is not associated with any theory of addiction or addiction causality. The classification decisions have a guaranteed level of statistical accuracy appended to them (albeit normed on a US population). The psychological profiling does not. This is derived from cumulative feedback reports submitted to the SASSI Institute, where practitioners have sent in SASSI profiles with accompanying vignettes of client personalities. For this reason, the indications which derive from these profiles must be regarded as hypotheses to be tested; not definitive statements of fact.
