BMJ  2003;327 (6 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7414.0

Alcohol screening in general practice is not effective

Screening for excessive alcohol use and then providing brief interventions is not effective in general practice. Beich and colleagues (p 536) conducted a meta-analysis of eight studies that evaluated screening as a precursor for brief interventions and found that the number needed to be screened per success and the workload are impracticably high if the available evidence is transferred into daily practice. For every 1000 patients screened, only 2.6 would benefit. They say that good clinical practice for addressing lifestyle issues like drinking should focus on the communication challenge rather than on implementating screening programmes with low levels of effectiveness.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Screening in brief intervention trials targeting excessive drinkers in general practice: systematic review and meta-analysis

Anders Beich, Thorkil Thorsen, and Stephen Rollnick
BMJ 2003 327: 536-542. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]