title: Screening for drug and alcohol abuse in a general medical population.
abstract: One hundred fifty consecutive, first-visit, general medical patients were simply and inexpensively screened by questionnaire, personal inquiry, and physical examination for drug and alcohol abuse. Seventeen (11.3%) currently used psychoactive drugs, excluding alcohol, and ten (6.7%) used drugs or alcohol on a daily basis to the point that the patient considered it an abuse problem. The majority of the drug and alcohol users recognized their problem on a short questionnaire that was part of a medical intake form. Almost all of the recognized abusers of drugs or alcohol subsequently entered treatment of their problem.
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States