Screening for Alcohol Use Disorder in the Emergency Department: Comparison of the AUDIT, CAGE and RAPS

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Early identification of alcohol use disorder (AUD) among patients coming to the emergency department (ED) for treatment is important in order to facilitate timely intervention and further evaluation. A number of brief screening tools have been developed for identifying patients with AUD. This study compared three brief screening tools for detecting DSM-IV-defined AUD. METHODS: A prospective study was performed from 20th of July 2004 to 20th of October 2004 at a university hospital emergency department (ED). We studied trauma patients including trauma patients who needed administration. Patients were screened by AUDIT, CAGE and RAPS test. Receiver operator characteristic analysis were used to evaluate the performance of the brief screens against the criterion of a DSM-IV AUD. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-five patients were enrolled in this study. Of the existing screening tools, AUDIT had the best overall performance in identifying AUD (sensitivity 98%. specificity 84%) CONCLUSION: Of the existing screening tools used to identify AUD, AUDIT had the best overall performance in identifying AUD in the ED.