CAGE Questions
Screens for alcohol use disorder
- Highest activation tier
- Recommended
- How it is scored
- Scored in code; a detected disagreeing draft value is flagged for correction
- Care settings
- Emergency department, Inpatient, Outpatient
When it activates
Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The CAGE Questions can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:
- Alcohol use screening
- Substance use evaluation
- Pre-operative assessment
- Withdrawal risk assessment
A coded diagnosis can also activate it. ICD-10 prefixes carried by the registry: F10.
Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to psychiatry, emergency medicine, hospital medicine. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.
Inputs the note needs
4 inputs. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; at this calculator’s tier a missing input is never requested, and a missing required input keeps the score out of the draft.
| Input | Type | Unit / options | Guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Felt need to cut down? | symptom | ||
| Annoyed by criticism of drinking? | symptom | ||
| Felt guilty about drinking? | symptom | ||
| Needed morning drink? | symptom |
Scoring
C=Cut down, A=Annoyed, G=Guilty, E=Eye-opener. 1 point per yes.
Cut down Felt need to cut down? + Annoyed Annoyed by criticism of drinking? + Guilty Felt guilty about drinking? + Eye-opener Needed morning drink?
Interpretation
>=2 positive answers: Positive screen for alcohol use disorder (>90% sensitivity).
Evidence
Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator.
- Ewing JA. Detecting alcoholism: the CAGE questionnaireEwing (CAGE) 1984 · 1984 · link last verified 2026-03-23
How Scribeable handles it in the note
When an encounter activates the CAGE Questions (its highest tier is recommended), Scribeable does not ask you for missing inputs. The score is computed in code from whatever inputs resolve from the transcript, the pasted chart context or charted labs; a computed value is never written into the draft for this instrument.
The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. If the draft states a CAGE Questions value that disagrees with the computed one, the disagreement is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation before you see the note.
Classified as a questionnaire: a patient-reported or clinician-rated instrument, where a spare activation carries low harm.
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