CRAFFT Screening Test

The CRAFFT Screening Test is a short test for alcohol and drug problems in teenagers.[1] This test has two parts. "CRAFFT" is an acronym for the six questions in the second part of the test.

A doctor or counselor can give the CRAFFT Screening Test to see if a teenager might have an alcohol or drug problem. Teenagers can also take the test themselves.[1]

History

Doctors at Boston Children's Hospital's Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research developed the CRAFFT Screening Test in 1999.[2] At the time, there were no tests for alcohol and drug abuse designed specifically for teenagers. The Children's Hospital team's goal was to develop a test for teenagers that was quick, easy to give, easy to score.[3]

At the time, one of the most common tools used to test for alcohol problems was the CAGE questionnaire. However, the CAGE does not work well for teenagers.[4] Also, the CAGE only tests for alcohol problems.

The CRAFFT tests for both alcohol and drug problems. Because drug- and alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers, the CRAFFT includes a question about this.

 
Young people getting arrested for binge drinking. The CRAFFT's goal is to find young people with substance use problems before they get in trouble[5]

Originally, the CRAFFT was designed for primary care doctors to use, to test teenagers they thought were likely to have substance abuse problems. Then, around 1999, researchers found that teenage alcohol and drug use was much more common than they thought. They found that:

  • Half of all high school students drank alcohol.[6] This included:[7]
    • More than 2 out of every 3 high school seniors (12th graders)
    • Half of sophomores (10th graders)
    • One out of every 3 eighth graders
  • One out of every 3 high school students binge drank[6]
  • More than half of all high school students had used an illegal drug[8]

This made it clear that the CRAFFT was not just needed to test teenagers who were more likely to have substance abuse problems. Now, experts suggest that primary care doctors use the CRAFFT to test all of their teenage patients. This can help identify alcohol and drug problems early, before they start to get too much worse.[5]

The test

The CRAFFT Screening Test has two parts. They are called "Part A" and "Part B."

Part A

Part A of the CRAFFT asks:

During the past 12 months, did you:

  1. Drink any alcohol (more than a few sips)?
  2. Smoke any marijuana or hashish?
  3. Use anything else to get high?
"Anything else" includes illegal drugs, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, and things that you sniff or "huff"

If a person answers "no" to ALL of these questions, they only have to answer the first question in Part B.

If a person answers "yes" to ANY of these questions, they have to answer all of the questions in Part B.

Part B

In simple English, here are the questions in Part B of the CRAFFT:

Question
C Have you ever ridden in a CAR driven by someone who had been using alcohol or drugs?
Have you ever driven a CAR after you had been using alcohol or drugs?
R Have you ever used alcohol or drugs to RELAX, feel better about yourself, or fit in with other people?
A Have you ever used alcohol or drugs while you were ALONE (by yourself)?
F Do you ever FORGET things you did while you were using alcohol or drugs?
F Do your FAMILY or FRIENDS ever tell you you should use less alcohol or drugs?
T Have you ever gotten into TROUBLE while you were using alcohol or drugs?

Scoring

Each time a person answers "yes" to one of the CRAFFT questions, they score one point for that question. If a person scores two or more - meaning they answered "yes" to at least two of the six "CRAFFT" questions - they are likely to have alcoholism or a drug addiction.

Not everyone who scores two or more on the CRAFFT will have an addiction. However, they do need to be tested more to see if they have an addiction.

Effectiveness

Research has shown that the CRAFFT is a good test for alcohol and drug problems in teenagers.[9][4][10] For example:[4]

  • 92% of teenagers who score 2 or more on the CRAFFT do have a substance abuse problem
  • 64% of teenagers who score less than 2 do not have a substance abuse problem

The CRAFFT has been translated into many languages, including Mandarin Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Japanese, Khmer, Laotian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.[11] Research shows that the CRAFFT is just as good a test when given in different languages, and to teenagers from different cultures.[12][13][14][15][16]

The CRAFFT is a very quick test. It takes an average of 74 seconds for a doctor to give the CRAFFT. If a person takes the CRAFFT on their own, it takes an average of 49 seconds.[5]

Related pages

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "The CRAFFT Screening Tool". The Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research. Children's Hospital Boston. 2009. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
  2. Knight JR; Shrier LA et al. 1999 (1999-06-01). "A new brief screen for adolescent substance abuse". Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 153 (6): 591–596. doi:10.1001/archpedi.153.6.591. ISSN 1072-4710. PMID 10357299.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Neinstein, Lawrence S.; Gordon, Catherine M.; Katzman, Debra K.; Rosen, David S.; Woods, Elizabeth R., ed. (2008). "CRAFFT". Adolescent Health Care: A Practical Guide (5th ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 950. ISBN 978-0-7817-9256-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Knight JR; Sherritt L 2003 (2003). "Validity of brief alcohol screening tests among adolescents: A comparison of the AUDIT, POSIT, CAGE, AND CRAFFT". Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. 27 (1): 67–73. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2003.tb02723.x. PMID 12544008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Harris SK; Louis-Jacques J 2014 (2014). "Screening and brief intervention for alcohol and other abuse". Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews. American Academy of Pediatrics. 25 (1): 126–56. PMID 25022191.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. 6.0 6.1 United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000. "Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance - United States, 1999". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 49 (SS-5): 1–96.
  7. Johnston, Lloyd D.; O’Malley, Patrick M.; Bachman, Jerald G.; Schulenberg, John E. (2013) Demographic Subgroup Trends Among Adolescents for Fifty-One Classes of Licit and Illicit Drugs: 1975-2012 . Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Report.
  8. Johnston, Lloyd D.; O’Malley, Patrick M.; Bachman, Jerald G. (2001) Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2000 – Volume I: Secondary School Students . United States National Institute on Drug Abuse. Report.
  9. Knight JR; Sherritt L et al. 2002 (2002). "Validity of the CRAFFT Substance Abuse Screening Test Among Adolescent Clinic Patients" (PDF). Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 156 (6): 607–614. doi:10.1001/archpedi.156.6.607. PMID 12038895. Retrieved February 23, 2016.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Dhalla S; Zumbo BD et al. 2011 (2011). "A review of the psychometric properties of the CRAFFT instrument: 1999-2010". Current Drug Abuse Reviews. 4 (1): 57–64. doi:10.2174/1874473711104010057. ISSN 1874-4745. PMID 21466499.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. "CRAFFT Screen". The Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research. Children's Hospital Boston. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
  12. Kandemir H; Aydemir Ö et al. 2015 (2015). "Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of CRAFFT Substance Abuse Screening Test among adolescents". Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. 11: 1505–9. doi:10.2147/NDT.S82232. PMC 4484694. PMID 26150721.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. Subramaniam M; Cheok C et al. 2010 (2010). "Validity of a brief screening instrument-CRAFFT in a multiethnic Asian population". Addictive Behaviors. 35 (12): 1102–4. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.08.004. PMID 20805016.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. Bertini MC; Busaniche J et al. 2015 (2015). "Transcultural adaptation and validation of the CRAFFT as a screening test for problematic alcohol and substance use, abuse and dependence in a group of Argentine adolescents". Archivos Argentinos de Pediatria. 113 (2): 114–8. doi:10.5546/aap.2015.eng.114. PMID 25727823.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. Cummins LH; Chan KK et al. 2003 (2003). "Validity of the CRAFFT in American-Indian and Alaska-Native adolescents: Screening for drug and alcohol risk". Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 64 (5): 727–32. doi:10.15288/jsa.2003.64.727. PMID 14572196.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. Cote-Menendez M; Uribe-Isaza MM et al. 2013 (2013). "Validation for Colombia of the CRAFFT substance abuse screening test in adolescents". Revista de salud pṹblica (Bogotá, Colombia). 15 (2): 220–32. PMID 24892665.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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