Identification of hazardous alcohol use in outpatient psychiatric care: A comparison of biomarker phosphatidylethanol (PEth) and self-report

AUDIT-10 and AUDIT-C are effective, accessible tools for identifying hazardous alcohol use in psychiatric populations, supporting their role as practical alternatives when PEth testing is unavailable. Machine learning methods offer incremental gains, but simple cut-off scores remain clinically useful. Findings highlight the value of integrating brief alcohol screening into psychiatric care to guide timely interventions, while considering PEth's biological variability.