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The CAGE-AID is the shortest substance-use screen in Rivet. Four yes/no items covering alcohol AND drug use in a single form. Brown and Rounds adapted the original alcohol-only CAGE (Ewing 1984) to include drugs in 1995, validated in primary-care practice. CAGE is an acronym: Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener.

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What it measures

Four items about lifetime alcohol or drug use:
  • Ever felt you should Cut down
  • People Annoyed you by criticizing your use
  • Felt Guilty about your use
  • Used first thing in the morning to steady nerves or get rid of a hangover (Eye-opener)
Each item is rephrased to cover “drinking or drug use” rather than alcohol alone — that’s the AID adaptation.

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When to send it

  • Rapid intake screen when you want a substance-use signal in a single question block
  • When the AUDIT or DAST-10 is too long for the workflow (intake panels with many measures, ED-style triage)
  • As an initial flag for whether to send the fuller AUDIT or DAST-10
  • Primary-care embedded mental-health practice
The four items take under a minute.

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How Rivet scores it

Sum of yes-scored items, range 0–4.
TotalBand
0Negative screen
1Positive screen — further substance-use assessment indicated
2–4Strong positive screen — substance-use disorder likely
Cutoff ≥1 is the standard threshold for the CAGE-AID — lower than the original alcohol-only CAGE’s ≥2 cutoff. The CAGE-AID adaptation lowered the threshold because (a) it covers a broader behaviour set (alcohol AND drugs) and (b) Brown demonstrated higher sensitivity at ≥1 in primary-care populations.

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Trade-off

The CAGE-AID is fast but less sensitive than the AUDIT or DAST-10. It’s a flag, not a severity gradient. A positive CAGE-AID earns a fuller follow-up — the AUDIT for alcohol, DAST-10 for drugs, or a clinical interview.

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Citation

Brown, R. L., & Rounds, L. A. (1995). Conjoint screening questionnaires for alcohol and other drug abuse: Criterion validity in a primary care practice. Wisconsin Medical Journal, 94(3), 135–140. Adapted from: Ewing, J. A. (1984). Detecting alcoholism: The CAGE questionnaire. JAMA, 252(14), 1905–1907. Free clinical use.

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When not to use it

The CAGE-AID is lifetime-framed and gives no severity bands beyond the flag — for treatment monitoring or pre/post measurement, use the AUDIT (which has a 12-month frame and a 0–40 severity scale) or DAST-10. For adolescents, the CRAFFT is the validated alternative and is the same length.

AUDIT-C

The 3-item alcohol-specific brief screen.

DAST-10

The 10-item drug-use screen with severity bands.