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Written by the One Stop Psychiatry editorial team, led by Muhammad Kashif Nawaz, PMHNP-BC, under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Rucker, DO, Psychiatrist · Updated . Educational information; not a diagnosis or a substitute for an individual evaluation.
TAPS · SUBSTANCE USE SCREENING
A free screening tool for adults 18 and older covering tobacco, alcohol, prescription medication misuse and other substances. Explore concerns privately, without judgment.
Time depends on your answers. Follow-up questions appear only for the relevant categories.
Please confirm you are 18 or older and choose an alcohol-question option.
Show all displays the current part. Follow-up questions appear as needed.
YOUR TAPS RESULTS · PRIVATE ON THIS DEVICE
There is no combined TAPS score. Each substance has its own result. These results are not a diagnosis, a safety assessment or a measure of how severe a disorder is.
Your answers and scores are not shared with the request form.
You can seek help at any score, including when current use has stopped or past problems still affect you. The tool may miss concerns.
Part 1 asks about the past 12 months and selects relevant follow-ups. Part 2 asks about the past 3 months. Each Yes in a scored section contributes one point: 0–4 for alcohol and 0–3 for other scored substances. A No to its opening use question skips that section’s remaining items. Other drugs are discussed without a numeric score.
A score of 1 deserves a conversation; 2 or more supports further assessment. For heroin, prescription opioid misuse and other drug categories, even a score of 1 warrants further assessment. These are screening indicators, not diagnoses or severity labels. Tobacco follow-ups focus on cigarettes and do not fully assess vaping or smokeless tobacco. Alcohol follow-ups may be skipped when the opening drinking-threshold question is Never; this does not mean no alcohol use.
Your answers have been cleared. No result was calculated. You can still request support.
If someone cannot be awakened, has slow or stopped breathing, has a seizure, or is severely confused, call 911 now. Do not wait for an appointment callback.
Stopping alcohol or some medications suddenly can cause dangerous withdrawal. Speak with a healthcare professional before making changes; this tool cannot provide a detox or medication plan. Answers on this page are not monitored.
Answers, alcohol-question selection, optional text and results stay in this page’s memory. They are not saved in browser storage or sent to WordPress, analytics, GoHighLevel or our care team. Clear, reload or leave to remove them. The appointment form is separate and has its own data handling.
TAPS stands for Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription medication, and other Substance use. Developed through the NIDA Clinical Trials Network for adult primary care, it uses two parts to identify concerns worth discussing with a clinician.
Part 1 asks about the past 12 months. Relevant follow-ups in Part 2 ask about the past three months. Use the timeframe shown with each question.
There are four opening categories, followed by questions based on your responses. Omitting alcohol removes that category and produces no alcohol result. The number of follow-ups varies, so there is no fixed completion time.
Use Back to review answers. Show all questions displays the current part, not every possible follow-up. You can stop without a result or clear your answers at any time.
TAPS gives separate substance-specific results, not one combined score. They can help guide a conversation about use and possible next steps. They do not diagnose a substance use disorder, measure its severity, or establish that substance use is safe.
A low result does not rule out concerns, including past problems or risks this questionnaire does not capture. The tool cannot assess overdose or withdrawal risk or provide a detox plan. You can seek help without finishing or meeting a score threshold.
The original alcohol wording uses a drinking-amount threshold. A Never response to that question does not necessarily mean no alcohol use. Choosing to omit alcohol means it has not been assessed.
The opening tobacco question includes several tobacco products, but the follow-up questions focus on cigarettes. A low cigarette result does not fully assess vaping or smokeless tobacco concerns.
If you mainly want to reflect on alcohol use, explore the separate three-question AUDIT-C alcohol screener. It has different questions and scoring; results should not be combined.
The medication questions ask about use that was not as prescribed or medicines not prescribed for you. Taking medication as directed is not the misuse asked about here.
If you have side effects or concerns while using a medicine as prescribed, speak with your prescriber even if the screen does not flag a concern. Do not stop or change medication based on a screening result.
Think about what you use, how often, and what you want help with. Bring a medication list and any concerns about sleep, mood, daily responsibilities or past attempts to cut down. You do not need to enter those personal details here.
Our team can discuss evaluation, appropriate care or referral options. Use the appointment request or phone options above for routine support; urgent concerns should not wait for a callback.
Source: NIDA: TAPS instrument overview. Instrument attribution and validation research are linked below.
TAPS Tool, NIDA Clinical Trials Network. English self-administered Web Version 2.0; 4.00; 09-19-17. Original item wording and substance-specific scoring are retained. The optional alcohol omission produces no alcohol result. Optional other-drug text is not scored. This presentation does not imply NIDA endorsement.
NIDA instrument description · AHRQ public-domain listing · McNeely et al., 2016: validation research
A screening result does not select a treatment. Read about psychiatric consultation or use the request option on this page to discuss care and referral options. These links do not establish availability of detoxification or emergency services.
Compare all mental health screeners and guides by topic and purpose. You do not need to complete several tools before asking for help.
Moving to another page clears this page’s answers or selections. They are not included in these links or sent to the appointment form.
These educational pages are written by the One Stop Psychiatry editorial team, led by Muhammad Kashif Nawaz, PMHNP-BC, which works under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Rucker, DO, Psychiatrist. Instrument sources and educational references are linked on each tool page. Screening cannot provide a diagnosis, determine safety or replace an individual evaluation.
The mood changes guide is original educational content, not a validated bipolar screening instrument. Contact the practice if you notice information that needs correction.
Answers, scores and mood-guide selections stay in this page’s memory; they are not sent to WordPress, our team or GoHighLevel and are not saved in browser storage. We count starts, finishes and subsequent appointment-request steps using a temporary random marker. No answers or scores are included. Ordinary hosting access logs are separate. The appointment form has its own data handling.