Free instruments
Tier 2 measures ask for a reported change. Each instrument below has a form you can link to and a license sentence quoted from its publisher. Check the quote before you rely on it.
- Public domain 1. The publisher or author says no permission is needed.
- Free, with conditions 2. Free to use under stated conditions; read the quoted license before using it.
- Screening only 1. Cleared for screening. It is not built to show change over time.
Cleared instruments, best rights class first 4
Brief Addiction Monitor, BAM (Continuous version)
Public domainLicense wording
“The BAM is in the public domain.”
The publisher or author says no permission is needed.
Substance use, recovery risks and resources
- Scoring
- Apply VA coding, then report Use, Risk and Protective composites separately. Continuous ranges: 0-90, 0-180, 0-180, respectively.
- Named by funders
- VA substance-use-disorder care.
- Validity
- Cacciola et al., 2013, J Substance Abuse Treatment 44:256-263; DOI 10.1016/j.jsat.2012.07.013.
- Caveat
- EN verified. Use the continuous-version key; VA retired its categorical version. No overall "recovery total."
Form License source
AUDIT
Free, with conditionsLicense wording
“No permission is needed for any non-commercial purpose.”
Free to use under stated conditions; read the quoted license before using it.
Alcohol-related risk/problems
- Scoring
- Official item coding yields 0-40; 8 or more is a commonly used screening threshold.
- Named by funders
- Washington State AMDG publishes the form.
- Validity
- Saunders et al., 1993, Addiction 88:791-804.
- Caveat
- EN; more than 40 translations listed. Preserve content, do not charge respondents, and identify it as WHO-approved. Standard past-year recall makes closely spaced pre/post comparisons difficult.
Form License source
Substance Use Recovery Evaluator (SURE)
Free, with conditionsLicense wording
“use within not-for-profit charities or health care settings does not require a licence.”
Free to use under stated conditions; read the quoted license before using it.
Recovery and functioning
- Scoring
- Recode the five response options using the author's three-level key; total 21-63, higher = better recovery.
- Named by funders
- No US funder requirement verified.
- Validity
- Neale et al., 2016, development and validation; the owner identifies it as a psychometrically validated recovery outcome measure.
- Caveat
- EN verified. Distribution, commercial exploitation and electronic storage/transmission have separate restrictions. Particularly relevant to nonprofit paper administration; do not assume permission to embed it in your software.
Form License source
AUDIT-C
Screening onlyLicense wording
“available for use in the public domain.”
Cleared for screening. It is not built to show change over time.
Alcohol consumption risk
- Scoring
- Sum 0-12. Original commonly used cutoffs: 4 or more for men; 3 or more for women.
- Named by funders
- Oregon Health Authority resource; NIDA-stewarded NIH common-data-element record.
- Validity
- Bush et al., 1998; Bradley et al., 2003, cited on the form.
- Caveat
- EN verified. Versions change the heavy-drinking threshold; retain the exact version and scoring rule.
Form License source
Looks free, is not 15
Each of these circulates widely and carries a licensing restriction. The wording is quoted from the publisher's page.
- Client Satisfaction Questionnaire, CSQ-8. Use requires "express written permission" and "remission of use fees." Applies to service and research use. It also measures satisfaction, not outcome change. Licensing page
- Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, MMAS-8 / MMAS-4. Owner license pricing posts fees of $7 per MMAS-8 administration and $4 per MMAS-4 administration, with other licensing arrangements. Licensing page
- Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, CD-RISC. The author's request form refers to "terms of use and payment details"; PhenX confirms a licensing agreement is required. Current owner-site pricing is unverified because those sites did not open. Licensing page
- Outcome Rating Scale, ORS. Agency and group paper licenses carry fees; electronic or digital use is excluded from that license. Not universally paid, but not blanket-free for a nonprofit agency. Licensing page
- Session Rating Scale, SRS. Same agency-fee and electronic-use restrictions as the ORS. It also measures therapeutic alliance rather than participant outcomes. Licensing page
- SDQ embedded in your digital product. Electronic reproduction requires authorization and may involve payment. This does not invalidate the conditional paper-use entry in the instrument list. Licensing page
- PRAPARE embedded in a platform. Developer agreements are listed at $5,000 per year (regular) or $10,000 per year (enterprise). Royalty-free end-user agreements are a separate category. These are the published 2024 terms, not a verified 2026 quotation. Licensing page
- North Carolina Family Assessment Scale, General Services (NCFAS-G). The license is issued to the purchasing agency, and cost depends on the number of workers using it. Viewing a sample is not permission to administer. Licensing page
- Parenting Stress Index, 4th ed., Short Form (PSI-4-SF). The publisher's purchase page lists paid materials. Its 36 items also exceed the 30-item length limit. Licensing page
- BASC-3 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS). The publisher page lists paid forms and digital administrations and Qualification Level B. Short administration and simple completion do not make it public domain. Licensing page
- Drug Abuse Screening Test, DAST-10. The instrument is under copyright: "Copyright 1982 by Harvey A. Skinner, PhD, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada." The PhenX page allows reproduction "for non-commercial use (clinical, research, training purposes)" with credit to the author, and says it "may be obtained through" CAMH. Conditional, not unrestricted; CAMH's own terms were not opened. Licensing page
- Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory. The publisher sells it: the Pearson page lists the BDI-2 Complete Kit (Print) at $195.70, with items from $3.90, and shows Qualification level B. Licensing page
- Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). PAR publishes it and the site states "All rights reserved." A modified version requires a permission request to PAR. Licensing page
- Outcomes Star (family of Stars). The site refers to licence holders and states "all Outcomes Star licence holders must complete our core training programme." A licence is required; the page opened does not state fees. Licensing page
- PROMIS short forms embedded in an electronic platform. The PROMIS terms state "Permission to use PROMIS INSTRUMENTS does NOT grant permission to modify the wording or layout of items," or "to distribute to others for a fee, or to translate items into any other language." The need for HealthMeasures Electronic Administration Permission (HEAP) when embedding in a platform comes from secondary sources and was not found in the terms page. Licensing page