Due to competing priorities and time constraints in medical settings, brevity is crucial for incorporating a screen into routine clinical practice; the need for a brief tool for identifying SUDs has been emphasized (Bush et al., 1998; Tiet et al., 2008; Vinson et al., 2007). For instance, Brown et al. (2001) compared five screening questions for alcohol and/or drug use disorders (blackouts, use alcohol/drugs more than intended, use for feelings, need to cut down, regret). Use more than intended and need to cut down showed higher sensitivity than the others; both were then combined into a two-question screener for SUDs. When one positive response was taken as a positive result, the two-question screener yielded sensitivity and specificity of 79% and 78%, respectively, for identifying a SUD thus suggesting its utility in clinical practice (Brown et al., 2001). The two-question screener, however, does not distinguish between alcohol and drug use, and its generalizability to the range of drug use disorders is unclear (Brown et al., 2001).
