title: Brief screening instruments for risky drinking in the outpatient psychiatry clinic.
abstract: In this pilot study, we compared two brief screening instruments, the T-ACE (Tolerance, Annoyed, Cut down, Eye-opener) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), with a clinician interview and structured clinical interview (SCID) to determine if they improved identification of risky drinking in a psychiatry clinic compared to clinician interviews. Sixteen of 50 subjects satisfied DSM-IV criteria for lifetime alcohol abuse or dependence on the SCID, and four, all T-ACE positive, were listed "correctly" in the chart as having an alcohol problem. With an SCID gold standard, risky drinking was identified with sensitivities and specificities of 0.88 and 0.59 for the T-ACE and 0.63 and 0.85 for the AUDIT. Brief screening instruments improved the identification of risky drinking in a psychiatry clinic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8088, USA. kevin.hill@yale.edu
authors.forename: Kevin P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012309:Risk-Taking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires