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CAGE is considered a validated screening technique with high levels of sensitivity and specificity. It has been validated via receiver operating characteristic analysis, establishing its ability to screen for problem drinking behaviors. It was first developed to show people they may have an alcohol abuse problem. Many versions have now been adapted to also identify dependency on drugs. Sometimes, the test may be called a CAGE-AID if it is to identify a problem with drug abuse. The CAGE assessment for substance abuse is easy to give when taking a health history or doing a psychosocial assessment of a patient.
The higher the score the greater the indication of alcohol problems. A total score of 2 or greater is considered clinically significant and has the specificity and sensitivities outlined below. The most important question is the final question regarding alcohol as an eye-opener as it denotes that the patient is undergoing withdrawal in the mornings. •Fast alcohol screening test – a two-stage screening procedure based on four of the original AUDIT items. Item 3 is asked first and classifies over half of respondents as either nonhazardous or hazardous drinkers.
Screening and Interventions in Medical Settings Including Brief Feedback-Focused Interventions
This program is amazing, run by three people who really know what they’re doing! Our group meetings did follow a structure, but there was quite a bit of time for sharing and interacting with peers and staff members. Because of this format, our group became very close. The combination of treatments and the supportive atmosphere is effective, and leaves many clients wanting more.
A very professional and experienced staff with many years in the Addiction business. They focus on the solutions for their clients, approaching each on an individual basis with individual treatment plans. Their staff truly CARES about everyone that they work with. I would highly recommend this facility for anyone that is truly seeking sobriety. Steve Brown with Renaissance Recovery has been so incredibly helpful and caring in my husband’s recovery.
- Read about the differences between alcohol abuse and alcoholism.
- Thus, AUDIT is a highly accurate tool, which has been validated in a large number of countries with consistently strong psychometric performance.
- Once I started with Renaissance I immediately felt surrounded by people who genuinely cared about me as a person and wanted to help me along my journey to recovery.
- Although not as sensitive as screening questions, they are particularly useful in patients suspected of drinking who deny alcohol use.
Four clinical interview questions, the CAGE questions, have proved useful in helping to make a diagnosis of alcoholism. The questions focus on Cutting down, Annoyance by criticism, Guilty feeling, and Eye-openers. The acronym “CAGE” helps the physician to recall the questions. Click on the link below to find free downloads for a CAGE screening tool PDF and Word survey that also includes the CAGE-AID screening tool, on page 2. The CAGE questionnaire can be accessed via /doctor/cage-questionnaire.
For screening measures such as the CAGE, diagnostic accuracy and discriminative validity are probably the most useful ways of looking at validity. John A. Ewing, MD, (d. 2006) was an addiction therapy clinician and professor of psychiatry emeritus at the University of North Carolina. He served as the founding director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, where he developed the CAGE questionnaire. The CAGE questions are 4 simple and easy-to-remember to screen for alcohol use problems. You’ll likely take part in withdrawal therapy during a detox program. For more severe cases, you may need to be admitted into a hospital or treatment center to be monitored and ensure your safety.
This quiz is a self-guided assessment that has been created from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which is the standard criteria for diagnosing mental health and substance use disorders. This self-assessment should not be considered as a final diagnosis but can be your first step in determining whether your drinking habits are cause for concern. Please consult a medical professional if this self-screening indicates a likelihood of alcohol abuse or addiction. The CAGE questionnaire, the name of which is an acronym of its four questions, is a widely used screening test for problem drinking and potential alcohol problems. The CAGE questionnaire does not have a specific intended population, and is meant to find those who drink excessively and need treatment. The CAGE substance abuse version, CAGE-AID, expands detection to include drug abuse in addition to alcohol abuse.
Comparison with other alcohol screening questionnaires
When interpreting the CAGE for substance abuse test, you will score the “yes” answers with a 1 and the “no” answers with a 0. Do you have any questions about the CAGE substance abuse assessment tool or CAGE questions alcohol or drug focused? Do you have any questions about the CAGE alcohol assessment tool or the acronym CAGE in substance abuse? Clinicians are often familiar with laboratory indicators of excessive alcohol consumption, such as mean corpuscular volume, gamma-glutamyl transferase , and carbohydrate deficient transferrin. In addition, questionnaire-based screening is less costly than laboratory analysis. There is ongoing interest in developing laboratory tests that can reliably identify patients with problem drinking.
They allowed me to dig deep into what would trigger me to drink and helped me to understand more about myself and the reasons I was drinking. I felt educated about this disease and it made me realize I wasn’t alone in my recovery. I feel like a new person and it gave me power and confidence to move on and be myself again. Steve and Chad helped me to open up and admit that I needed to do this for myself and I couldn’t do it for others.
Screening for Alcohol
A total of 2 points or above for the total score is evaluated as significant and a possible indicator of an alcohol problem. Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Reliability refers to whether the scores are reproducible.
In addition, they do not clearly differentiate between hazardous, harmful, and dependent drinking. At a score of 8 or more out of a possible 40, the ability of AUDIT to detect genuine excessive drinkers and to exclude false cases is 92 and 94%, respectively. Thus, AUDIT is a highly accurate tool, which has been validated in a large number of countries with consistently strong psychometric performance. It is now regarded as the “gold standard” screening tool to detect hazardous and harmful drinking in primary care patients.
However, this simple tool remains underused as the number of individuals with alcoholism who remain undiagnosed and untreated demonstrates. Some of the most remarkable advances in medicine are deceptively simple. The CAGE criteria for a positive score would be a total of 2 or higher. This indicates the potential for substance abuse, and further evaluation is recommended. The CAGE assessment meaning comes from the focus of each of the CAGE assessment questions. One letter in the CAGE alcohol assessment acronym is pulled from words in each of the four questions.
Reproduction of the questionnaire requires permission from the original publishers, the Journal of the American Medical Association. The CAGE-AID questionnaire can be found at /images/res/CAGEAID.pdft. Permission to reproduce this questionnaire can be obtained from Dr Richard Brown, MD, Wisconsin, USA. Write, “A patient who answers yes to two or more of these questions probably abuses alcohol; a patient who answers yes to one question should be screened further” (p. 56).
How is it scored?
I could feel his love and I knew immediately that this was my message from God . I feel as though these gentlemen are an extension of my family. I am forever grateful for everything they have taught me and for helping me to become the better man I am today. I have been in touch with Steve for a few months now. All I can say is that if you or a loved one are struggling with addiction there are people who will understand you, and when I called this place for the first time I finally felt understood.
Common Effects Of Growing Up With An Alcoholic Father
The questionnaire can be self-administered or administered by a health-care professional. It is important that it is stressed that the questions relate to the whole of the patient’s life, https://soberhome.net/ not just the current circumstances. Five years ago I had the opportunity to meet Steve Brown, the owner of Renaissance Recovery. He routinely referred his patients to Renaissance Recovery.
They have a lot of experience in this field and have first hand experience with what I was going through. IOP is outstanding and really built up a ton of great relationships and found this program to be a ‘breath of fresh air’. They got a lot of love and empathy and will always go the extra mile to help their clients!
Being that there are just four CAGE test questions, it’s a quick assessment and one that fits naturally into a conversation about the patient’s health/behavior history. •AUDIT-PC – the eco sober house cost first two questions of the full AUDIT plus items 4, 5, and 10, which focus on alcohol-related problems and possible dependence. A score of 5+ indicates hazardous or harmful drinking.
