Heavy drinking commonly complicates treatment of depression. This study evaluated how the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and its abbreviations perform in mild and moderate depression.

In a subsample (2086/4020, response rate 51.9 %) of the National FINRISK 2007 Study a modified Beck Depression Inventory (short form) was administered to evaluate depression. The AUDIT, AUDIT-C and AUDIT-3 were tested against the gold standard of heavy drinking according to the definition of the World Health Organization calculated from the Timeline Followback.

Mild depression was found in 32 % of men and 40 % of women, moderate depression in 13 % and 18 %, respectively. In the mildly depressed, 44 % of men and 30 % of women were defined as heavy drinkers, in the moderately depressed 49 % and 27 %, respectively.

The AUDIT and AUDIT-C performed consistently in mild and moderate depression. The optimal cut-offs (sensitivity and specificity ≥ 0.75) for men were of ≥ 8 or ≥ 9 for the AUDIT and ≥ 6 for AUDIT-C. The optimal cut-offs for women were ≥ 5 for the AUDIT and ≥ 4 for AUDIT-C. The AUDIT-3 did not perform well in women, but in men a good level of sensitivity and specificity was reached with a cut-off of ≥ 2.

The AUDIT and AUDIT-C performed well in screening for heavy drinking among the depressed. In depressed men, the AUDIT-3 i.e. a single question was efficacious in detecting heavy drinking. The need for sex-specific cut-offs was highlighted.