Screening for alcohol abuse in primary care: current status and research needs.
Alcohol dependence and abuse are current problems for about 10% of the American population. Patients with alcohol involvement are over-represented in primary care settings. However, a number of these patients may not be detected as being alcohol abusing/dependent by their physicians. Current alcohol screening measures are reviewed. It is likely that a systematic combination of psychosocial self-report data and biomedical information can improve detection of alcohol-abusing patients. Future directions for primary care research include further development of psychosocial screening measures, determining common clinical presentations of alcohol-abusing patients, and evaluating the effectiveness of brief counseling and physician education.
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Department of Family Medicine, Deaconess Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri 63139.
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D010821:Physicians, Family; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology