title: The detection of alcohol problems in a primary care clinic.
abstract: The CAGE is a four item questionnaire which is used to help clinicians identify alcohol problems. Charts of 433 primary care patients who were given a medical health form containing the CAGE questions (experimental patients) were compared with charts of 451 patients given a similar form that did not contain the CAGE questions (control patients). Alcohol problems were detected more frequently in the experimental patients (10.6%) than in the control patients (6.7%) (p < 0.05). This difference in detection tended to be most evident for persons with milder alcohol problems (problem drinking) as opposed to more well developed alcohol abuse. Experimental patients (3.7%) also tended to be more likely than control patients (2.9%) to receive active alcohol treatment during their initial medical visit. Medical health screening forms which include the CAGE questions may promote the identification of alcohol problems in primary care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, Cornell University Medical Center, New York, NY 10021.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olfson
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Braham
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires