10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The CAS exam has 150 questions and runs 3 hours.
These 10 free CAS questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Certified Addiction Specialist blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
After missing another morning shift, a client says, 'Drinking is how I switch off, but I can't keep letting my coworkers down.' The counselor wants to evoke the client's own reasons for changing rather than move immediately into a plan. What response best serves that purpose?
Correct answer: B - How would cutting back fit with the coworker you want to be?
At a primary-care visit, a 38-year-old has a total score of 17 on the 10-item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Assessment finds no current withdrawal, prior withdrawal complications, or urgent medical or psychiatric concern. Match this result to the WHO four-zone AUDIT intervention framework.
Correct answer: B - Brief counseling with continued monitoring of alcohol-related problems
An outpatient team is adding contingency management for methamphetamine use disorder. The agreed target behavior is submitting methamphetamine-negative urine samples. Which delivery plan best implements this intervention?
Correct answer: D - Deliver an agreed incentive promptly after each verified negative sample.
An adult reports eating an unusually large amount within about an hour while feeling unable to stop, twice weekly for five months. After each episode, the client fasts for the next day to prevent weight gain. Weight and shape dominate self-evaluation; body weight is not significantly low. The client denies vomiting or using laxatives. Which diagnosis best accounts for the full pattern?
Correct answer: D - Bulimia nervosa
A client receiving methadone for opioid use disorder learns that she is 13 weeks pregnant. She has been stable for ten months without nonprescribed opioid use and reports no medication adverse effects. Worried about neonatal withdrawal, she asks whether she should enter detoxification now. Which change to her treatment plan is warranted?
Correct answer: A - Add coordinated prenatal care while maintaining prescribed methadone treatment.
During an intake, a client reports using fentanyl the previous evening. The urine report lists 'opiates: negative.' The laboratory's panel description lists a morphine-targeted immunoassay and no fentanyl-specific assay. The client is alert and breathing normally. How should the counselor interpret this result?
Correct answer: C - The reported assay does not establish whether fentanyl was used.
A federally assisted program subject to 42 CFR Part 2 receives a subpoena from an attorney suing a client. It requests the client's substance-use treatment records for that civil case. The program has a valid consent for treatment, payment, and health care operations (TPO), but no consent for the litigation and no Part 2 court order. How should the program handle the request?
Correct answer: A - Withhold disclosure under the TPO consent and obtain privacy/legal review before responding.
During supervised buprenorphine initiation, a client who recently used a full-agonist opioid develops an abrupt increase in vomiting, diarrhea, and gooseflesh. The buprenorphine dissolved fully, and no other medication was administered. The prescriber identifies precipitated withdrawal. What receptor action explains this reaction?
Correct answer: C - Displacement of the full agonist by high-affinity buprenorphine, whose partial agonism provides less receptor activation
An adult requests an assessment for 'sex addiction' because viewing pornography a few times each month conflicts with personal religious beliefs. The client can postpone or stop viewing, has not neglected responsibilities, and reports no harm beyond guilt about violating those beliefs. How does ICD-11 distinguish this presentation from compulsive sexual behavior disorder?
Correct answer: B - Distress due solely to moral disapproval does not establish the disorder.
A client has replaced four 12-fluid-ounce beers at 5% alcohol by volume each evening with two 16-fluid-ounce beers at 7.5%. 'I've cut my drinking in half,' the client says. Using the U.S. standard-drink definition, which feedback accurately addresses this change?
Correct answer: C - You still consume four standard drinks; fewer containers have not reduced the alcohol amount.
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