Use of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test in a prison hospital.

The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) was administered to 214 admissions to a maximum security ward of a prison hospital. Over 70.7% of the patients had scores greater than 5 and 57.8% had scores greater than 10, indicating that they engaged in problem drinking or alcohol misuse before admission. Older patients had higher scores, and a small number of patients with no criminal involvement had lower scores.