title: Substance use in the general hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  People misusing substances are overrepresented in health settings. Substance misuse can also be an underlying factor complicating medical diagnosis and management.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (i) To establish the prevalence of substance misuse in the general hospital inpatient population; and (ii) to examine the relationship between medical diagnosis and substance misuse problem as identified by screening tools.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study adopted a three-step screening approach including a prospective questionnaire survey, interview, and case note review. Subjects included all adult patients admitted to a London teaching hospital over a 1-week period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy percent completed the questionnaire. Twenty-three percent was currently smoking, 14% was rated positive for alcohol misuse, and 12% positive for drug misuse. Only 65% of patients was screened for smoking, 54% for alcohol, and 9% for other substances.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  People misusing one substance were more likely to be misusing others, hence the importance of screening all patients for all substances. Doctors were screening a small percentage of patients and they identified and intervened with only the severe ones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Addictive Behaviour and Psychological Medicine, St. George's Hospital Medical School, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, Tooting, London SW17 0RE, UK. depad@sghms.ac.uk
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kouimtsidis
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Jackie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lind
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beckett
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Drummond
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghodse
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods; D008131:London / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology