Some screening is necessary to identify excessive drinkers early in primary care

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7388.550

BMJ 2003;326:550 ( 8 March )

Letters

Some screening is necessary to identify excessive drinkers early in primary care

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EDITOR $---$ In his comments on the paper by Beich et al, Rollnick refers to "a seemingly flat refusal from a group of leading Europeanalcohol researchers to accept the validity of a qualitative studythat reported concerns expressed by practitioners." ¹ ² Asthe researchers in question and as members of the WHO Phase IVResearch Group (collaborative project on identification and managementof alcohol-related problems in primary health care) whose workwas referred to by Beich et al, we here clarify our previous responseon bmj.com.³

What we saw as particularly unhelpful about the Beich et al paper was its conclusion that screening for excessive alcoholconsumption creates more problems than it solves and should thereforepresumably be abandoned. We think this conclusion unjustified,mainly because the general practitioners whose views on screeningwere reported had taken part in a randomised controlled trialof brief intervention. This must have affected . . . [Full text of this article]

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Screening and brief intervention for excessive alcohol use: qualitative interview study of the experiences of general practitioners: Anders Beich, Dorte Gannik, and Kirsti Malterud
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