[Detection of alcoholic patients using the systematic CAGE autoquestionnaire. In out patients]

A French adaptation of the CAGE questionnaire was used as a self-administered test in 200 outpatients (heart clinic 100, gastroenterology clinic 100) from a French University Hospital. People with two positive items or more were regarded as potential "alcoholics", i.e. indulging in excessive alcohol consumption without being alcohol-dependent. With a 9.5 per cent prevalence of "alcoholics", 95.5 per cent of out-patients were correctly classified.