CAGE Alcohol Screener
CAGE Alcohol Screener - a deterministic tool in Sophie Well's Clinical Scoring & Risk group.
Open the CAGE Alcohol Screener → Runs in your browser. No signup, no tracking.
What this is
Score the four-question CAGE alcohol-use disorder screen: have you ever felt the need to Cut down on drinking, been Annoyed by criticism of your drinking, felt Guilty about drinking, or needed a morning drink (Eye-opener) to steady nerves or treat a hangover. Each yes is one point. A score of 2 or more is the standard positive cutoff and warrants a more detailed alcohol-use assessment such as AUDIT or the SBIRT brief intervention pathway.
When to use it
Use this during a primary-care or behavioral-health intake, during a pre-procedure or pre-operative evaluation when withdrawal risk needs to be triaged, or when an ED patient presents with a syndrome (trauma, GI bleed, pancreatitis, unexplained AST/ALT ratio above 2) that should prompt alcohol-use screening. The CAGE is brief and well-validated for detecting alcohol-use disorder, but it is less sensitive for at-risk drinking patterns; pair it with AUDIT-C or AUDIT-10 when the goal is to catch heavy drinking that has not yet caused functional impairment.
References
Ewing JA. CAGE Questionnaire. JAMA. 1984;252(14):1905-1907.
Worked example: Score 2 of 4 = Positive.
Sophie Well is a reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice. Does not replace clinician judgment, professional billing review, or legal counsel.