ACOG Committee Opinion No. 422: at-risk drinking and illicit drug use: ethical issues in obstetric and gynecologic practice.
Drug and alcohol abuse is a major health problem for American women regardless of their socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and age. It is costly to individuals and to society. Obstetrician-gynecologists have an ethical obligation to learn and use a protocol for universal screening questions, brief intervention, and referral to treatment in order to provide patients and their families with medical care that is state-of-the-art, comprehensive, and effective. In this Committee Opinion, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Ethics proposes an ethical rationale for this protocol in both obstetric and gynecologic practice, offers a practical aid for incorporating such care, and provides guidelines for resolving common ethical dilemmas related to drug and alcohol use that arise in the clinical setting.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000941:ethics; D003219:Confidentiality; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000941:ethics* / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult