The AUDIT is the World Health Organization’s 10-question alcohol screen. Three questions ask how much someone drinks, three look for signs of dependence, and four for harm. The total runs from 0 to 40, and 8 or more points to hazardous or harmful drinking. Answer the questions to score it, see which of the WHO’s four zones the total falls in, and record the result with the free template.
AUDIT result template
FreeAUDIT RESULT Date: [Date] Patient: [Name or ID, age, sex] Given as: [Interview or self-report questionnaire; language, and interpreter if used] Why given: [Positive AUDIT-C, intake, admission, or a problem that may be linked to drinking] Drink size used: [Grams in a standard drink where you practice, and what the patient usually drinks] ITEM SCORES Consumption, items 1 to 3: [Points for each, and the subtotal out of 12] Dependence, items 4 to 6: [Points for each, and the subtotal out of 12] Harm, items 7 to 10: [Points for each, and the subtotal out of 16] Skips followed: [None, after item 1, or after items 2 and 3] Total: [0 to 40] ZONE Cutoff: [8, or 7 for a woman or a man over 65, or the program's own] WHO zone: [I alcohol education, II simple advice, III brief counseling and monitoring, or IV referral] Moved up a zone: [Yes, for 2 or more on item 4, 5, or 6, or 4 on item 9 or 10; or no] Earlier results: [Date and AUDIT or AUDIT-C total, or none on file] ITEMS OF NOTE Signs of dependence: [What items 4 to 6 describe, and how often] Withdrawal: [Last drink, last alcohol-free day, past shakes, sweats, seizures, or confusion] Harms: [Guilt, memory loss, injuries, and who has raised concern] Past problems: [Item 9 or 10 answered yes, but not in the last year; or none] INTERVENTION Given today: [Education, simple advice, brief counseling, or referral, and how long] Feedback: [What the score means for this patient, tied to their own health] DSM-5 review: [Criteria met and severity, or not assessed and why] Patient's goal: [A stated limit, alcohol-free days, stopping, or not ready] PLAN Withdrawal plan: [Not needed, or supervised withdrawal, setting, thiamine, and monitoring] Medicines: [Naltrexone, acamprosate, or another option offered, started, or declined] Referral: [Service and appointment date, or none] Bloods: [Liver enzymes, GGT, full blood count, or none ordered] Review: [Date of the next visit, and when to repeat the AUDIT] Clinician: [Name, credentials]
Every item as published. The total and what it means update with each answer; nothing you choose leaves this page.
Now I am going to ask you some questions about your use of alcoholic beverages during this past year.
Use it for
Say why you’re asking, then go through the questions in order. As an interview or on paper, it takes two to four minutes.
Avoid: Bringing it out in the middle of an argument about drinking. Asked alongside other health questions, it doesn’t sound like an accusation.
Two skips shorten the AUDIT for people who drink little. Both jump to items 9 and 10, never to the end.
Avoid: Stopping at item 1 for a non-drinker. A past injury or past concern from others points to a problem worth knowing about.
Items 1 to 8 score 0 to 4; items 9 and 10 score 0, 2, or 4. Add all ten for a total from 0 to 40.
Avoid: Scoring items 9 and 10 as 1 for “yes, but not in the last year.” Their answers score 0, 2, or 4.
Where the points come from matters as much as the total. The WHO reads the items in three groups.
Avoid: Treating two totals of 14 as the same. Fourteen points from heavy weekends is a different problem from fourteen with morning drinking.
Each WHO zone pairs a total with an intervention. Start at the level the score suggests, and step up if the drinking doesn’t change.
Avoid: Sending every positive result to a specialist. Most people who score 8 to 15 do well with advice in the same visit.
High totals, daily heavy drinking, and points on items 4 to 6 call for questions about withdrawal before you advise stopping.
Avoid: Telling a daily heavy drinker to stop tomorrow. Stopping suddenly can bring seizures or delirium.
Each one follows the recording template. Use them to judge how much to write.
Primary care video follow-up for gout, AUDIT asked aloud after an AUDIT-C of 9 on the intake form
Consumption 9: item 1 four or more times a week, 4; item 2 five or six drinks, 2; item 3 weekly, 3. Dependence 2: item 4 less than monthly, 1; item 5 less than monthly, 1; item 6 never, 0. Harm 7: item 7 monthly, 2; item 8 less than monthly, 1; item 9 yes, but not in the last year, 2; item 10 yes, but not in the last year, 2. Total 18 of 40. Five or six 355 ml cans of 5% beer on weeknights, about one standard drink each, and 8 to 10 at Saturday games.
50-year-old man. Cutoff 8. Zone III, 16 to 19: simple advice plus brief counseling and monitoring. Not moved up: items 4 to 6 are 1 or less, and items 9 and 10 are 2. AUDIT-C of 9 two weeks ago; first full AUDIT.
Item 4: one night in the spring he meant to have two and had nine. Item 9: broke his wrist falling off a deck at a barbecue three summers ago. Item 10: his brother told him to cut down two years ago. Last alcohol-free day 10 days ago, with no shakes, sweats, or broken sleep. Three gout flares this year, two of them the morning after a game.
Brief counseling, 15 minutes. Feedback: beer as a trigger for his flares and one reason his uric acid stays above target on allopurinol 200 mg. DSM-5: keeps drinking despite flares he links to beer, 1 criterion; no alcohol use disorder. His goal: 2 cans at most on weeknights, 3 alcohol-free days a week, and no more than 4 at games.
Allopurinol up to 300 mg. Uric acid, liver enzymes, and GGT before the next visit. Video visit in 4 weeks to go over his drinking diary and any flares; a diagnostic assessment and a referral to the addiction service if he hasn’t met his goal by then. Repeat the AUDIT in 3 months.
Psychiatry outpatient intake for anxiety and insomnia, AUDIT self-completed on a tablet and gone over with the psychiatrist
Consumption 9: item 1 four or more times a week, 4; item 2 five or six drinks, 2; item 3 weekly, 3. Dependence 8: item 4 weekly, 3; item 5 monthly, 2; item 6 weekly, 3. Harm 7: item 7 monthly, 2; item 8 less than monthly, 1; item 9 no, 0; item 10 yes, during the last year, 4. Total 24 of 40. A 750 ml bottle of 13% wine most nights, about five and a half standard drinks of 14 grams. She had marked “3 or 4” for the bottle; rescored once the count was explained.
34-year-old woman. Cutoff 7 for women. Zone IV, 20 to 40: referral for diagnostic evaluation and treatment. The move-up items are met too: 3 on items 4 and 6, 2 on item 5, 4 on item 10. No earlier AUDIT.
Item 6: a glass of wine some mornings to stop her hands shaking before work. Item 4: tried to stop for a week in April and started again on day 2, with sweats, shaking, and no sleep; no seizures or hallucinations. Item 10: her partner, in September. Last drink at 11 pm last night. The anxiety she came in for is worst in the mornings.
Feedback on the 24, and on the morning shakes as withdrawal rather than anxiety alone. DSM-5: 7 criteria, including tolerance and withdrawal: severe alcohol use disorder. Advised not to stop suddenly, and not to drive on mornings she feels shaky. Her goal: to stop drinking, with help.
Referral to addiction medicine, seen in 3 days, for diagnostic evaluation and outpatient withdrawal with daily CIWA-Ar checks; her partner will stay home with her that week. Thiamine 100 mg daily from today. Liver enzymes, GGT, full blood count, and a pregnancy test drawn today. Naltrexone or acamprosate to discuss after withdrawal. No new anxiety or sleep medicine until withdrawal is over; anxiety reassessed 4 weeks after her last drink. Psychiatry review in 1 week.
A 13 with weekly morning drinking belongs a zone higher. Check items 4 to 6, 9, and 10 before choosing the intervention.
The full AUDIT runs 0 to 40, positive at 8, or 7 for women and men over 65. The AUDIT-C’s 3 and 4 apply only to its own 0 to 12 total.
The skip goes to items 9 and 10. A former drinker’s past injury, or past concern from family or a doctor, belongs in the record.
Ask about morning drinking, alcohol-free days, and past withdrawal first. Plan the withdrawal before the quit date.
Items 2 and 3 count standard drinks. Convert a bottle of wine or a tall can of strong beer before scoring them.
Vero Scribe records the AUDIT result in your template from the visit, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation: the item scores, the zone, the dependence and harm items, and the plan. You review and edit every line, then copy it into your record. Vero works in 60+ languages.
Item 1: never 0, monthly or less 1, 2 to 4 times a month 2, 2 to 3 times a week 3, 4 or more times a week 4. Item 2: 1 or 2 drinks is 0, 3 or 4 is 1, 5 or 6 is 2, 7 to 9 is 3, 10 or more is 4. Items 3 to 8: never 0, less than monthly 1, monthly 2, weekly 3, daily or almost daily 4. Items 9 and 10: no 0, yes but not in the last year 2, yes during the last year 4. Add all ten for a total from 0 to 40.
The WHO links each range to an intervention. Zone I, 0 to 7: alcohol education. Zone II, 8 to 15: simple advice. Zone III, 16 to 19: simple advice plus brief counseling and continued monitoring. Zone IV, 20 to 40: referral for diagnostic evaluation and treatment. A patient moves up one zone for 2 or more on item 4, 5, or 6, or 4 on item 9 or 10.
The WHO recommends 8 or more as the sign of hazardous or harmful drinking, and 7 or more for women and for men over 65. A cutoff of 10 misses more people but gives fewer false positives. The higher the score, the more likely dependence; 15 or more is often read as a likely alcohol use disorder.
Items 4 to 6: not being able to stop once started, failing to do what was expected, and needing a morning drink. Points there, especially weekly or daily, suggest dependence present or starting. Items 7 to 10 cover harm: guilt, memory loss, injuries, and concern from others.
The AUDIT-C is the AUDIT’s first three questions, on how often and how much someone drinks, scored 0 to 12. The full AUDIT adds seven questions on dependence and harm, scored 0 to 40 into four zones. The AUDIT-C is the quicker screen; the full AUDIT shows how serious the problem is and which intervention fits.
Not on its own. A score of 20 or more calls for a diagnostic evaluation, but the diagnosis comes from an interview against the DSM-5 criteria: 2 to 3 is mild, 4 to 5 moderate, and 6 or more severe.
Anyone on the care team can ask it, and patients can complete it themselves on paper or a tablet in two to four minutes. A clinician reads the result, looks at items 4 to 10, and chooses the intervention.
Yes. As a WHO-approved instrument, the AUDIT is in the public domain, and no permission is needed to use it for non-commercial purposes, as long as the questions aren’t changed and no one completing it is charged. The WHO manual can be copied but not sold. The recording template on this page is free to copy or download too.
Three questions on how often and how much someone drinks, scored 0 to 12: positive at 4 or more for men, 3 or more for women.
Four yes-or-no questions on drinking problems at any point in life: positive at 2 or more of 4.
Ten signs rated at the bedside: how severe alcohol withdrawal is now, scored 0 to 67.
Eleven withdrawal signs, from pulse to gooseflesh, rated by a clinician: opioid withdrawal severity from 0 to 48.
A teen alcohol and drug screen for ages 12 to 21: days of use, then six yes-or-no questions scored 0 to 6, high risk at 2 or more.
After a zone III or IV result: each substance, withdrawal risk, the diagnosis, and the level of care.
Screens, assessments, and follow-up notes, drafted from the visit for your review.
Every tool, by area, with what its scores mean.
Vero records scores, findings, and plans in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
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