Initial questions: 4 items
Drinking habits over the past 3 months: 20 items
Clinical assessment: 4 items
where:
• For question 2: Discontinue if response for men is < 5 and for women < 3.
• For question 3: all types of accidents.
• In the implementation I did not stop the questionnaire if the responses to the first 2 questions indicated no or low alcohol intake. This was too time consuming to implement but is doable.
Scoring:
(1) A response in question 2 of >= 36 for men or >= 16 in women is given 1 point.
(2) A positive response for questions 3 to 28 is given 1 point.
total score =
= SUM(points for the 27 questions scored)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 27
• A group of known alcoholics all had a score >= 3 and 98% has a score >= 5.
• The presence of a given score does not mean that the person is alcoholic, only that further investigation is warranted.
Performance:
• Only 1.6% of the control non-alcoholic group were identified with the CAST.
• 95% of patients classified as alcoholic by the short MAST were identified by CAST. CAST identified as problem drinkers some patients with a short MAST score of 0 or 1 (who showed craving or concern on their level of drinking).
