The Paddington Alcohol Test (PAT) was first published in the Journal of Accident and Emergency Medicine in 1996. It was designed to screen for alcohol related problems amongst those attending Accident and Emergency departments. It concords well with the Alcohol Use Disorders dentification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire but is administered in a fifth of the time.


When 40-70% of the patients in an Accident and Emergency department (AED) are there because of alcohol related issues, it is useful for the staff of the AED to determine which of them are possibly alcoholic so that they can treat the underlying cause. In Accident and Emergency departments, it is also important to triage incoming patients as quickly as possible, to reduce staff size and cost. In one study, it took and average of 73 seconds to administer the AUDIT questionnaire but only 20 seconds for the PAT.