Short Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire (SADD)
SADD: The following questions cover a wide range of topics to do with drinking. Please read each question carefully but do not think too much about its exact meaning. Please answer each question Never, Sometimes, Often or Nearly Always. Think about your MOST RECENT drinking habits and answer each question by selecting from the four options:
1. Do you find it difficult in getting the thought of drink out of your mind?
2. Is getting drunk more important than your next meal?
3. Do you plan your day around when and where you can drink?
4. Do you drink in the morning, afternoon and evening?
5. Do you drink for the effects of alcohol without caring what the drink is?
6. Do you drink as much as you want irrespective of what you are doing the next day?
7. Given that many problems may be caused by alcohol, do you still drink too much?
8. Do you know that you won’t be able to stop drinking once you start?
9. Do you try and control your drinking by giving it up completely for days or weeks at a time?
10. The morning after a heavy drinking session do you need your first drink to get yourself going?
11. The morning after a heavy drinking session do you wake up with a definite shakiness of your hands?
12. After a heavy drinking session do you wake up and retch or vomit?
13. The morning after a heavy drinking session do you go out of your way to avoid people?
14. After a heavy drinking session do you see frightening things that later you realise were imaginary?
15. Do you go drinking and the next day find you have forgotten what happened the night before?
Scoring the SADD
Short Alcohol Dependence Data questionnaire (SADD) is used to measure the severity of alcohol dependence.
It has good test-retest, reliability and construct validity and is relatively independent of socio-cultural influences
The SADD is in the public domain can be used without cost but with due acknowledgment of the source.
Raistrick,D., Dunbar,G. and Davidson,R. (1983) Development of a questionnaire to measure alcohol dependence. British Journal of Addiction, 78: 89-95.
The SADD takes less than 5 minutes to administer.
Each item is scored as follows:
Never = 0; sometimes = 1; often = 3; nearly always = 4.
A total score is obtained by adding the score from each of the items.
- scores between 1 – 9 indicates low dependence;
- scores between 10 – 19 indicates medium dependence and;
- a score of 20 or more indicates high dependence.
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