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Saturday, June 9, 2007

Simplifying Alcohol Assessment: Two Questions to Identify Alcohol Use Disorders
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research (OnlineEarly Articles). 9 June 2007


Previous work has validated a single question to screen for hazardous or harmful drinking, but identifying those patients who have an alcohol use disorder (AUD) among those who screen positive is still time consuming.

We therefore sought to develop and validate a brief assessment instrument using DSM-IV criteria for use in primary care medical practice.

Two constructs with promising test characteristics were identified: recurrent drinking in hazardous situations and drinking more than intended.

The sensitivity and specificity of these 2 items across 4 samples suggest that they could be formulated into 2 questions, potentially providing busy primary care clinicians with an efficient, reasonably accurate assessment instrument to identify AUD among those patients who screen positive with the single screening question.

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