How this instrument works
DUDIT — the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test — asks eleven questions about drug use over the past year: how often, how much, whether use has spiraled past what was intended, and whether it has already caused harm. The first nine items score from 0 to 4 each, covering frequency, quantity, loss of control, and dependence-like symptoms. The last two work differently, the same way the final two items on AUDIT do: rather than a frequency scale, they ask a three-way history question — no, yes but not in the past year, yes in the past year — worth 0, 2, or 4 points. Add all eleven and the total runs from 0 to 44.
Anne Berman, Hans Bergman, Tom Palmstierna, and Frans Schlyter published DUDIT in 2005 in European Addiction Research, evaluating it across criminal justice, detoxification, and general population settings in Sweden. The instrument shares its structural logic with the World Health Organization's AUDIT questionnaire — the same split between consumption items and consequence items, the same three-way scoring on the final two questions — because the team built it deliberately on that established design rather than starting from nothing. What DUDIT changes is scope: where AUDIT asks about alcohol specifically, DUDIT asks about drug use broadly, without separating heroin from cannabis from prescription misuse in the score itself.
That breadth is also DUDIT's clearest limitation. A total of 20 could come from heavy, frequent cannabis use or from a single drug causing serious harm — the number alone can't tell the two apart, because the questionnaire never asks which substance is involved. A reading above threshold is a prompt for a follow-up conversation about specifics, not a diagnosis of any particular drug problem, and treating it as anything more precise than a screen risks assuming a substance the person never mentioned.
- Answer items 1 through 9 using the frequency or severity options for each question — every item scores 0 to 4.
- Items 10 and 11 ask about harm to yourself or others and others' concern; each scores 0, 2, or 4, the same three-way scale AUDIT uses for its last two questions.
- Leaving an item at its default of 0 counts it as the lowest response.
- Read the total (0-44) against the thresholds below to see which range it falls in.
Worked example — a total of 10, above the screening threshold
A mix of low-to-moderate answers — 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, and 0 across the eleven items — adds straight across: 2+2+2+1+1+1+1+0+0+0+0 = 10. That clears the ≥6 threshold used for men and the ≥2 threshold used for women, both suggesting drug-related problems worth a closer conversation, though it sits well short of the ≥25 mark associated with probable dependence.
The extremes bracket it cleanly. Answering 0 on every item sums to 0 — no concerning answers anywhere. Answering the maximum on all eleven, including the top response on items 10 and 11, sums to 44, the highest total the test allows and deep past the dependence mark.
Questions
What does a DUDIT score of 10 mean?
It clears both commonly used screening thresholds — 6 or higher for men, 2 or higher for women — so it flags a pattern worth discussing further. It's well below the 25-point mark often associated with probable dependence, so a reading like this usually prompts a conversation about which substances are involved and how often, not an assumption of a severe problem.
Why do men and women get different DUDIT thresholds?
Because the 2005 validation by Berman and colleagues found that a given level of drug-related consequences tended to show up at a lower total for women than for men — the same pattern researchers had already found with AUDIT and alcohol. A woman scoring 4, for instance, has already crossed her threshold, while a man at the same total has not yet crossed his.
How is DUDIT different from AUDIT, already on this site?
AUDIT and DUDIT share a structure — both are WHO-style screening questionnaires, and DUDIT's authors built it directly on the AUDIT model, including the same three-way scoring on their final two questions. The difference is subject matter: AUDIT asks specifically about alcohol, while DUDIT asks about drug use broadly, without naming a substance anywhere in its eleven questions.
Does a high DUDIT score identify which drug is involved?
No — this is a real limitation worth stating plainly. DUDIT's eleven questions ask about drug use as a category, not about any specific substance, so an identical total of 20 could reflect frequent cannabis use, opioid misuse, or several drugs used together. A positive screen is a signal to ask what, specifically, is being used, not a label for any one substance.
What does a DUDIT score above 25 suggest?
Berman and colleagues' 2005 validation associates totals at or above 25 with probable drug dependence, the highest of the score's informal bands. As with the lower thresholds, this is a screening signal supporting referral for a fuller clinical assessment, not a standalone diagnosis — the actual evaluation still weighs history, pattern of use, and clinical judgment.
Is DUDIT meant to be self-administered?
It was validated across settings that used it both ways, as a self-report questionnaire and administered by an interviewer, in criminal justice, detoxification, and general population samples in Sweden. What matters for a meaningful total is answering all eleven items about the same recall period, typically the past year, since a partially answered form understates the true score.
References
- Berman AH et al., 2005, Eur Addict Res — DUDIT validation (PubMed)
- NIDA — Chart of Evidence-Based Screening Tools and Assessments
Read this first: This instrument computes a screening figure from population formulas — it is not a diagnosis, and it cannot see the whole picture a clinician can. Use it to inform a conversation, not to replace one.