Cahalan Scale for Evaluating Alcohol Misuse

 

Items:

(1) frequent intoxication - one or more of the following:

(1a) 5 or more drinks at least once per week

(1b) >= 8 drinks on one of the 2 most recent drinking episodes and twice in past 2 months

(1c) >= 12 drinks on one of the 2 most recent drinking episodes and twice in past year

(1d) getting "tight" at least once a week

(2) binge drinking - one or both of the following:

(2a) being intoxicated for >= 3 days in a row

(2b) being intoxicated for >= 2 days in a row on >= 2 occasions

(3) symptomatic drinking - two or more of the following:

(3a) drinking to get rid of a hangover

(3b) having difficulty in stopping drinking

(3c) blackouts or lapses of memory

(3d) skipping meals while on a drinking bout

(3e) tossing down drinks for a quicker effect

(3f) sneaking drinks

(3g) taking quick drinks in advance of a party to ensure drinking enough

(4) psychological dependency - one or more of the following:

(4a) drinking when nervous

(4b) drinking when depressed

(4c) drinking to forget

(4d) drinking to cheer self up

(5) problems with spouse and/or relatives

(6) problems with friends and/or neighbors and/or social life caused by drinking

(7) problems in job due to drinking

(8) legal problems (problems with the police, motor vehicular accidents, other)

(9) health problems because of drinking (advised to cut down by doctor; patient notices harmful effects from drinking)

(10) financial problems due to drinking

(11) belligerence when drinking (aggressive, angry, get into fights)

Response	Points
absent	0
present	1

 

where:

• In the implementation I modified item 1 by removing the requirement in 1b and 1c to be once within the past 2 drinking episodes.

• In the implementation I added "or schooling" to item 7

 

total score =

= SUM(points for all 11 items)

 

Interpretation:

• minimum score: 0

• maximum score: 11

• The higher the score the more severe the alcohol misuse.

• The presence of 7 or more items indicates a severe problem with drinking.

• A person may be considered to have a problem with fewer than 7 items if the problems are considered severe.