There's 1 Big Issue With The Alcohol Test Kash Patel Was Asked To Take — And You Can Probably Guess It

Addressing complaints about FBI Director Kash Patel’s conduct, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee requested that Patel take a 10-question alcohol screening test — but experts say the results wouldn’t formally constitute a diagnosis.

Dr. Joshua Lee, a clinician-researcher focused on addiction and a professor of Population Health and Medicine/General Internal Medicine and Clinical Innovation at NYU, told HuffPost that the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT, is a “screening instrument” rather than the key to a concrete diagnosis.

“It is a way for me to talk to you and get a sense for the likelihood of an actual alcohol use disorder,” Lee said. “It is akin to something you’d fill out about whether or not you had depression, but I can’t diagnose and treat depression until I have further interviewed the patient.”

AUDIT has been the most widely used alcohol screening test globally since its publication in 1989. The test is a 10-item questionnaire by the World Health Organization “to assess alcohol consumption, drinking behaviors and alcohol-related problems.” The test is publicly available and features two formats: One is read aloud by an interviewer — usually a medical professional — while the second is a self-reported version. Patel has the option to choose between the two.