Alcohol Use Screener (AUDIT)

About the AUDIT

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was developed by the World Health Organization in collaboration with researchers across six countries and first published in 1989, with refined guidelines released by Babor and colleagues in 2001. It was designed as a brief screening tool for hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol use — patterns that put a person at risk of physical, psychological, or social harm, even if they do not yet meet criteria for an alcohol use disorder.

The standard cutoffs used in research and clinical practice are:

• 8 or higher: suggests hazardous or harmful drinking
• 16 or higher: suggests harmful drinking, with brief intervention recommended
• 20 or higher: suggests possible alcohol dependence, warranting fuller assessment

The instrument is widely used in primary care, mental health, and public-health settings around the world, and is one of the most thoroughly validated alcohol screeners available.

A Note on Our Scoring

The validated AUDIT uses two different response scales: a 5-point scale (0–4) for questions 1–8 and a 3-point scale (0, 2, 4) for questions 9 and 10. Our assessment framework supports a single scale per screener, so we have used the standard 5-point scale uniformly across all 10 questions. For questions 9 and 10, only three of the five options apply meaningfully ("Never," "Less than monthly," and "Weekly," which we have aligned to the canonical AUDIT values of 0, 2, and 4 respectively in the question text).

This means your educational total can diverge from a strictly validated AUDIT score by at most a few points — but the cutoffs above remain directionally accurate for screening purposes. If you want a clinically scored AUDIT, your primary care provider or therapist can administer it directly and discuss your result in context.

What the AUDIT Does (and Does Not) Do

An AUDIT score is a useful educational signal — it tells you roughly where your drinking pattern sits on a risk continuum. It is not a diagnosis. Alcohol use disorder is diagnosed by a clinician based on a structured interview against DSM-5 criteria, taking into account loss of control, cravings, tolerance, withdrawal, and the impact of drinking on your life and relationships.

The AUDIT also does not capture every risk factor — it does not ask about family history, co-occurring mental health conditions, medication interactions, or pregnancy, all of which change how alcohol affects you. Use your score as a conversation starter, not a verdict.

Next Steps

If your score suggests hazardous or higher-risk drinking, consider:

• Reading about addiction to understand the spectrum of alcohol use problems
• Exploring evidence-based approaches like motivational interviewing, CBT, or DBT
• Looking into group therapy and peer-support models, which have strong evidence for alcohol-related concerns
• Speaking with your primary care provider or a licensed therapist

If you are physically dependent on alcohol — drinking heavily and daily, with shaking, sweating, or anxiety when you stop — please consult a medical provider before changing your drinking abruptly. Alcohol withdrawal can be medically serious and is best managed with clinical support.

Citation

Babor, T. F., Higgins-Biddle, J. C., Saunders, J. B., & Monteiro, M. G. (2001). AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: Guidelines for Use in Primary Care (2nd ed.). World Health Organization.