Wisconsin Substance Abuse Counselor Practice Exam

Assessing problem severity across life domains in substance use disorders requires a tool that looks beyond just how much a person uses and evaluates how SUD affects functioning in several areas. The Addiction Severity Index is designed for this purpose. It is a structured interview that covers seven domains: medical status, employment/support, drug use, alcohol use, legal status, family/social relationships, and psychiatric status. It provides composite severity scores for each area, giving a holistic view of how SUD impacts a person’s life and guiding treatment planning and progress tracking.

Other tools focus on single aspects, such as depression symptoms (PHQ-9) or alcohol use risk (AUDIT, CAGE), and do not measure functioning across multiple life domains.