Addiction Alcohol Use The Michigan Alcohol Screening Test By Buddy T Buddy T Facebook Twitter Buddy T is an anonymous writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Learn about our editorial process Updated on July 08, 2021 Medically reviewed Verywell Mind articles are reviewed by board-certified physicians and mental healthcare professionals. Medical Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Learn more. by John C. Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE Medically reviewed by John C. Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE John C. Umhau, MD, MPH, CPE is board-certified in addiction medicine and preventative medicine. He is the medical director at Alcohol Recovery Medicine. For over 20 years Dr. Umhau was a senior clinical investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Learn about our Medical Review Board Print John Fedele / Getty Images Table of Contents View All Table of Contents Drawbacks Questions Scoring Developed in 1971, the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) is one of the oldest and most accurate alcohol screening tests available. Questions on the MAST relate to the patient's self-appraisal of social, vocational, and family problems frequently associated with heavy drinking. The test was developed to screen for alcohol problems in the general population. Drawbacks of the MAST There are two drawbacks to the MAST, compared with other alcohol screening tests available today. The length of the test makes it less convenient to administer in a busy primary care office or emergency room setting, compared to the shorter four- or five-question tests available. The questions on the MAST also focus on problems over the patient's lifetime, rather than on current problems. This means the test is less likely to detect alcohol problems in the early stages.Over the years, there have been several variations of the MAST developed, including the brief MAST, the short MAST, as well as the self-administered MAST. The following is the 22-question, self-administered MAST. The MAST Questions The MAST is a simple, self-scoring test that helps assess if you have a drinking problem. Answer yes or no to the following questions: 1. Do you feel you are a normal drinker? ("normal" is defined as drinking as much or less than most other people) ___ Yes ___ No 2. Have you ever awakened the morning after drinking the night before and found that you could not remember a part of the evening? ___ Yes ___ No 3. Does any near relative or close friend ever worry or complain about your drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 4. Can you stop drinking without difficulty after one or two drinks? ___ Yes ___ No 5. Do you ever feel guilty about your drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 6. Have you ever attended a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)? ___ Yes ___ No 7. Have you ever gotten into physical fights when drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 8. Has drinking ever created problems between you and a near relative or close friend? ___ Yes ___ No 9. Has any family member or close friend gone to anyone for help about your drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 10. Have you ever lost friends because of your drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 11. Have you ever gotten into trouble at work because of drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 12. Have you ever lost a job because of drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 13. Have you ever neglected your obligations, family, or work for two or more days in a row because you were drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 14. Do you drink before noon fairly often? ___ Yes ___ No 15. Have you ever been told you have liver trouble, such as cirrhosis? ___ Yes ___ No 16. After heavy drinking, have you ever had delirium tremens (DTs), severe shaking, visual or auditory (hearing) hallucinations? ___ Yes ___ No 17. Have you ever gone to anyone for help with your drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 18. Have you ever been hospitalized because of drinking? ___ Yes ___ No 19. Has your drinking ever resulted in your being hospitalized in a psychiatric ward? ___ Yes ___ No 20. Have you ever gone to any doctor, social worker, clergyman, or mental health clinic for help with any emotional problem in which drinking was part of the problem? ___ Yes ___ No 21. Have you been arrested more than once for driving under the influence of alcohol? ___ Yes ___ No 22. Have you ever been arrested, or detained by an official for a few hours, because of other behavior while drinking? ___ Yes ___ No MAST Scoring Score one point if you answered "no" to the following questions: 1 or 4. Score one point if you answered "yes" to the following questions: 2, 3, 5 through 22. A total score of six or more indicates hazardous drinking or alcohol dependence and further evaluation by a healthcare professional is recommended. Do you think you may have a drinking problem? Take the online alcohol abuse screening quiz. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Learn the best ways to manage stress and negativity in your life. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit 1 Source Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Powers JS, Spickard A. Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test to diagnose early alcoholism in a general practice. South Med J. 1984;77(7):852-6. doi:10.1097/00007611-198407000-00016 Additional Reading Primary Care Alcohol Information Service. Screening tools for healthcare settings. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Michigan Alcohol Screening Test. Get Treatment for Addiction Advertiser Disclosure × The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Verywell Mind receives compensation.