Attribution required.The CUDIT-R is free to use. The full instrument is published in the scientific literature and distributed openly (for example by the University of Washington's Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute and the PhenX Toolkit); no permission or fee is required for clinical or research use.
The following questions concern your use of cannabis over the past six months. Select the response that best fits.
01
How often do you use cannabis?
Item score-
02
How many hours were you 'stoned' on a typical day when you had been using cannabis?
Item score-
03
How often during the past 6 months did you find that you were not able to stop using cannabis once you had started?
Item score-
04
How often during the past 6 months did you fail to do what was normally expected from you because of using cannabis?
Item score-
05
How often in the past 6 months have you devoted a great deal of your time to getting, using or recovering from cannabis?
Item score-
06
How often in the past 6 months have you had a problem with your memory or concentration after using cannabis?
Item score-
07
How often do you use cannabis in situations that could be physically hazardous, such as driving, operating machinery or caring for children?
Item score-
08
Have you ever thought about cutting down, or stopping, your use of cannabis?
Item score-
Scored locally in your browser - nothing is sent until you choose to.
0 of 8 answered
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CUDIT-R0 / 8
The following questions concern your use of cannabis over the past six months. Select the response that best fits.
01
How often do you use cannabis?
Item score-
02
How many hours were you 'stoned' on a typical day when you had been using cannabis?
Item score-
03
How often during the past 6 months did you find that you were not able to stop using cannabis once you had started?
Item score-
04
How often during the past 6 months did you fail to do what was normally expected from you because of using cannabis?
Item score-
05
How often in the past 6 months have you devoted a great deal of your time to getting, using or recovering from cannabis?
Item score-
06
How often in the past 6 months have you had a problem with your memory or concentration after using cannabis?
Item score-
07
How often do you use cannabis in situations that could be physically hazardous, such as driving, operating machinery or caring for children?
Item score-
08
Have you ever thought about cutting down, or stopping, your use of cannabis?
The Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test - Revised (CUDIT-R) screens for problematic cannabis use over the past six months. Its eight items cover frequency of use, hours spent intoxicated on a typical using day, impaired control, failure to meet role expectations, time devoted to use, memory and concentration problems, use in physically hazardous situations, and thoughts about cutting down.
It is a screening instrument, not a diagnostic one: a positive score flags people whose cannabis use warrants a fuller clinical assessment. It is designed for adults and older adolescents who have used cannabis in the past six months, in both clinical and community settings.
Where it comes from.
The original 10-item CUDIT was published by Adamson and Sellman in 2003, explicitly modelled on the WHO's AUDIT for alcohol, and developed in New Zealand outpatient samples. Several items performed poorly in practice - notably an injury item that hardly ever scored - prompting a revision.
The CUDIT-R, published by Adamson and colleagues in 2010 in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, used item response theory analyses to trim and replace the weakest items, arriving at eight items that discriminate across the full range of severity. The revised scale matched or outperformed the original with two fewer items, and has since become one of the most widely used cannabis screens internationally.
How scoring works.
Items 1-7 are each scored 0-4, and item 8 (thoughts about cutting down) is scored 0, 2 or 4, giving a total of 0-32. Per the scale's scoring guidance, a score of 8 or more indicates hazardous cannabis use, and 12 or more indicates a possible cannabis use disorder that should prompt a fuller assessment. These thresholds were derived in treatment-seeking samples; later studies in college and community samples suggest the optimal cutoff varies by population, with some recent clinical work in young people supporting a slightly higher threshold for identifying a DSM-5 cannabis use disorder.
Score
Severity
Interpretation
0–7
Low risk
Cannabis use within a lower-risk range.
8–11
Hazardous use
Score of 8 or more indicates hazardous cannabis use; brief intervention recommended.
12–32
Possible cannabis use disorder
Score of 12 or more suggests a possible cannabis use disorder; further assessment recommended.
How well it performs.
The CUDIT-R was validated against DSM-IV cannabis abuse and dependence diagnoses in its original treatment-trial sample, where it performed strongly. Reliability is consistently high in clinical samples but noticeably lower in non-clinical ones, so scores from community or online settings deserve more caution.
α = 0.91
Internal consistency
Original validation sample (Adamson et al., 2010)
91%
Sensitivity
Against DSM-IV cannabis abuse/dependence in the original validation (Adamson et al., 2010)
90%
Specificity
Against DSM-IV cannabis abuse/dependence in the original validation (Adamson et al., 2010)
α 0.66-0.73
Reliability in non-clinical samples
College students and veteran samples (Schultz et al., 2019; Loflin et al.)
How it compares to the alternatives.
Instrument
Items
Time
When to reach for it
CUDIT-R
8
~2 min
Cannabis-specific screen with hazardous-use and possible-disorder cutoffs.
AUDIT
10
~3 min
The alcohol equivalent it was modelled on; reach for it when alcohol is the substance in question.
AUDIT-C
3
~1 min
Ultra-brief alcohol consumption screen for routine intake.
DAST-10
10
~3 min
When you need a general drug screen across substances rather than cannabis specifically.
CAGE-AID
4
~1 min
Very brief combined alcohol-and-drugs conversation opener; less graded severity information.
CAST
6
~2 min
Cannabis screen developed for adolescents and young adults in population surveys.
Right tool, wrong tool.
Reach for it when
-Screening adults and older adolescents who report any cannabis use in the past six months
-Structuring a conversation about cannabis use with graded severity rather than a yes/no question
-Baseline and periodic re-screening during treatment where cannabis is a clinical concern
-Research requiring a brief, free, widely used cannabis severity measure
Reach for something else when
-Diagnosing cannabis use disorder - a score of 12+ signals the need for clinical assessment, it does not make the diagnosis
-Screening for other substances - use DAST-10 (drugs generally) or AUDIT (alcohol)
-Younger adolescents in population settings, where CAST has a stronger evidence base
-Week-to-week outcome monitoring - the six-month window changes too slowly; track frequency and quantity directly instead
Reading the score with care.
No minimal clinically important difference or standard error of measurement has been established for the CUDIT-R. Scores just either side of the 8 and 12 cutoffs should be treated as the same clinical signal, and the six-month recall window means the total responds slowly to real change. In non-clinical samples the lower internal consistency widens the uncertainty around any individual score.
What it cannot tell you.
The validation anchor is DSM-IV abuse and dependence, not DSM-5 cannabis use disorder, and the standard cutoffs come from New Zealand treatment-seeking samples - optimal thresholds look different in college and community populations. Reliability drops in non-clinical samples. The 'hours stoned' item is increasingly awkward with edibles and high-potency products, where duration of intoxication maps poorly onto quantity. As with all self-report substance screens, disclosure depends on context and perceived consequences. It also says nothing about withdrawal severity or medical versus recreational motives.
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