Substance misuse in psychiatric inpatients: comparison of a screening questionnaire survey with case notes
BMJ 2003; 327 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7418.783 (Published 02 October 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;327:783
- Ben Barnaby, assistant psychologist1,
- Colin Drummond (colin.drummond@sghms.ac.uk), professor of addiction psychiatry1,
- Annie McCloud, clinical lecturer in addictive behaviour1,
- Tom Burns, professor of community psychiatry2,
- Nicola Omu, specialist registrar in psychiatry3
- 1 Department of Addictive Behaviour and Psychological Medicine, St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London, London SW17 0RE
- 2 Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School
- 3 South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, London SW17 7DJ
- Correspondence to: C Drummond
- Accepted 21 July 2003
Introduction
Doctors are poor at taking alcohol histories in many clinical settings.1 2 Given the increasing prevalence of drug misuse in the general population and in psychiatric patients, the extent of detection of drug misuse is also important. For patients with comorbid substance misuse and psychiatric problems, the UK Department of Health states, “Individuals with dual problems deserve high quality, patient focused, and integrated care. This should be delivered within mental health services.”3 If substance misuse is not detected, however, such care is unlikely to be delivered. We examined data to investigate the prevalence of alcohol and drug misuse in inpatients admitted to psychiatric wards and the extent and accuracy of detection by the psychiatrists doing assessments on admission.
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Substance misuse and related history in the case notes of 200 …