Master the Mind: 2026 Behavioral Medicine Challenge – Ace the Approach to Psychiatric Patients!

Screening for alcohol and substance use in behavioral medicine relies on brief, validated tools that are quick to administer and have good accuracy. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and the CAGE questionnaire are standard for alcohol: AUDIT covers hazardous drinking and possible dependence, while CAGE is a concise four-question screen with strong clinical utility. For drugs, the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10) is a validated, brief screen specifically targeting drug use. Since mood disorders often accompany substance use, including a depression screen like the PHQ-9 helps identify mood comorbidity that can affect treatment planning and outcomes. The other options aren’t designed as quick, validated screens for current substance-use issues: MMPI-2 and Rorschach are broad personality assessments, the Mini-Mental State Examination focuses on cognitive status, and the Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale are depression measures not optimized for substance-use screening in typical behavioral medicine settings.