Is There A Test For Alcoholism?

There is no test that will definitively tell you whether or not someone is an “alcoholic”. There are medical tests that can tell you if a person is drinking heavily – notably a CDT test – but nothing that can diagnose alcoholism.

Alcoholism, in the common usage of the term, is used to describe a situation where someone is addicted to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The term ‘alcoholic’ or ‘alcoholism’ is not used by Doctors or health professionals, and people in recovery often prefer not to use it.

Medically the term Alcohol Use Disorder is used and is characterized as being an “impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse personal, career or health consequences”.

One of the ways AUD is diagnosed is the completion of a self-evaluation to determine ‘problem drinking’. This usually consists of a number of questions that make the subject reflect on their alcohol use and determine whether changes need to be made. You can check out an example of the questions in this post “Do I Have A Drinking Problem“.