According to the available data, treatment motivation and readiness are closely linked to retention. There are instruments for measuring the stages of motivation and readiness, and predicting treatment retention and outcome.

This study describes psychometric properties, while focusing on the reliability of the Slovenian version of the Circumstances, Motivation and Readiness (CMR) scales.

We included 109 male and female patients with opioid addiction at the Centre for Treatment of Drug Addiction, Ljubljana. The CMR was translated into Slovenian by using the “forward-backward” procedure by our team and its author. Data analysis addressed psychometric properties of the CMR. Internal consistency was examined by applying exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, while reliability was examined with Cronbach's coefficient alpha.

Cronbach alpha coefficients of reliability were calculated for each of the three CMR subscales and for the total score. The total alpha was 0.842. Alpha for Motivation was 0.860, for Circumstances 0.372 and for Readiness 0.818. Exploratory factor analysis extracted a 3-factor solution with 56% explained total variance. The factors do not provide an exact match with the dimensions C, M and R.

On the basis of these results we can conclude that the Slovenian translation of the CMR is a valid instrument for evaluating patients’ motivation and readiness for treatment.