This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Related letter  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Substance Abuse/ Alcoholism  • Violence and Human Rights  • War  • Diagnosis  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their study of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems before and after military combat deployment, Ms Jacobson and colleagues¹ assessed the history of potential alcohol dependence using the presence of at least 1 item from the CAGE (cut back, annoyed, guilty, eye opener) questionnaire at baseline. The CAGE questionnaire is a brief valid screening tool for detecting alcohol use disorders, widely used in screening patients for alcohol abuse or dependence in the general population as well as in clinical studies.² A review concluded that the CAGE questionnaire had greater accuracy than other screening instruments for alcohol use disorders in primary care.³

However, using a cutoff of 1 or more items from the CAGE questionnaire to diagnose potential alcohol dependence may be problematic. A cutoff score of 1 or more yields higher sensitivity but lower specificity than a score of 2 or more. The lower cutoff could be . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Alain Dervaux, MD
a.dervaux@ch-sainte-anne.fr

Xavier Laqueille, MD
Service d’Addictologie
Centre Hospitalier Sainte-Anne
Paris, France

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Problems Before and After Military Combat Deployment
Isabel G. Jacobson, Margaret A. K. Ryan, Tomoko I. Hooper, Tyler C. Smith, Paul J. Amoroso, Edward J. Boyko, Gary D. Gackstetter, Timothy S. Wells, and Nicole S. Bell
JAMA. 2008;300(6):663-675.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED LETTER

Military Combat Deployment and Alcohol Use—Reply
Isabel G. Jacobson, Tyler C. Smith, and Nicole S. Bell
JAMA. 2008;300(22):2607.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT