title: The AUDIT-C: screening for alcohol use disorders and risk drinking in the presence of other psychiatric disorders.
abstract: This article examines the performance of the AUDIT-C, as embedded in a large national survey, as a screener for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and risk drinking among individuals with past-year psychopathology. The analysis is based on data collected in personal interviews from a representative population sample of US adults. The study population consisted of past-year drinkers with any past-year mood disorder (n = 2818), any past-year anxiety disorder (n = 3173), or any personality disorder (n = 4389). Screening performance was evaluated by means of sensitivity, specificity, and areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs). The AUCs for the AUDIT-C were from 0.888 to 0.893 for alcohol dependence, from 0.864 to 0.876 for any AUD, and from 0.941 to 0.951 for any AUD or risk drinking-all on a par with those observed in the general population. Among men, cut points of either > or =5 or > or =6 points (the former favoring sensitivity and the latter favoring specificity) were optimal for detecting dependence, and cut points of > or =5 points were optimal for any AUD and for any AUD or risk drinking. Among women, a cut point of > or =4 points was optimal for the outcomes of both alcohol dependence and any AUD, whereas a cut point of > or =3 points was preferable for detecting any AUD or risk drinking.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-9304, USA. ddawson@mail.nih.gov
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Dawson
authors.forename: Bridget F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Frederick S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Stinson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States