Opportunities for alcohol screening and counseling in primary care.

BACKGROUND

The physician can be an important part of a comprehensive strategy to assist persons with alcohol problems. This study was designed to contribute to the development of physician-initiated brief interventions for patients with alcohol problems by incorporating into an existing screening instrument questions that solicit information relevant to behavior change strategies.

METHODS

Adult patients from 12 family practices in North Carolina (N = 2716) completed a self-administered questionnaire assessing alcohol consumption and other health-related behaviors. Alcohol problems were assessed using the four-item CAGE (Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking? Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking? Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking? Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves, or to get rid of a hangover?). For this study, CAGE was adapted to address only the past 12 months. Patient interest in reducing the amount of alcohol consumed was measured using the Transtheoretical Model developed by Prochaska and colleagues. Patients were also asked about their motives for and barriers to reducing consumption.

RESULTS

Five percent of all patients and 9% of patients who reported drinking alcohol gave positive responses on at least two CAGE items. Patients with three or four positive CAGE responses were 74% more likely to report an interest in reducing alcohol consumption than were those with one or two. Intrinsic reasons were the most important motives for reducing consumption. No pattern was found in barriers.

CONCLUSIONS

We found that in the management of patients with alcohol-related problems, there are many clinical opportunities for patient counseling and referral in the family practice setting. Individually tailored brief interventions that take into consideration the patient's interest in, motives for, and barriers to reducing alcohol consumption are likely to be successful for the family practice physician.