Caffeine Use Disorder Questionnaire (CUDQ)

Caffeine is a psychoactive substance present in drinks and foods:

Most adults and many children use caffeine. In fact, a recent review on caffeine stated this:

"Caffeine is the most commonly used drug in the world. Although consumption of low to moderate doses of caffeine is generally safe, an increasing number of clinical studies are showing that some caffeine users become dependent on the drug and are unable to reduce consumption despite knowledge of recurrent health problems associated with continued use. Thus, the World Health Organization and some health care professionals recognize caffeine dependence as a clinical disorder." (from Meredith et al, 2013).

Ágoston and colleagues (2018) used the DSM-5 criteria for a short caffeine use disorder questionnaire, the CUDQ.

Ágoston and colleagues (2018) studied a sample in Hungary. The article states that for participation in their study, "Inclusion criteria included those who consumed caffeine in the last year at least one time and were >18 years old." and then they wrote: "The caffeine consumption was 255.4 mg (SD = 145.4 mg) for males, 223.3 mg (SD = 125.6 mg) for females, and 267.2 mg (SD = 126 mg) among daily users. Of the participants, 41.9% consumed greater than or equal to 300 mg caffeine daily and 18.4% consumed greater than or equal to 400 mg daily."

This is actually quite interesting, as these are considerable amounts of caffeine for someone who never drinks caffeine. Generally, amounts below 400 mg caffeine a day are not considered affecting health negatively (Nawrot et al., 2003).

To understand the DSM-5 criteria for Caffeine Use Disorder, the article by Addicot (2014) is really useful, and here are is a useful quote from it:

"The DSM-5 does not include a diagnosis of caffeine use disorder (CUD) because, according the APA, it is not yet clear to what extent it is a clinically significant disorder. However, caffeine use disorder is included in Section III (Emerging Measures and Models) of the DSM-5 to encourage further research on the impact of this condition [12]. The proposed CUD criteria are the same as other SUD; however, the CUD diagnosis is designed to be more conservative. For a CUD diagnosis, all three of the following criteria need to be endorsed: 1) a persistent desire or unsuccessful effort to control use, 2) ‘use despite harm’, and 3) withdrawal. This higher threshold is intended to prevent over-diagnosis of CUD given the prevalence of nonproblematic caffeine use in the general population [1]. These proposed criteria are intended to encourage more research on the reliability, validity, and prevalence of CUD, as well as its functional consequences on the lives of those affected by it."

A total sample of 2259 people living in Hungary who used caffeine at least once in the past year (mean age 33.97 years). The study also looked at smokers.

The authors clarified in personal communication with PsyToolkit that for the score, "never" is 0 and the other three scores are all just counted as zero. The CUD score is simply a count of symptoms. This is how it is coded in the PsyToolkit code here as well.

It seems that the the five need satisfaction measures can be used for research, but you need to acknowledge the authors and their research paper when writing about it (Ágoston et al, 2018).

This is a simple scale question.