The adult patients of the somatic departments of Amiens University Hospital were screened on a randomly selected day by interviewers who examined them using a structured questionnaire regarding lifestyle, with the CAGE questionnaire, and their daily alcohol consumption. The medical histories of all patients were collected. A patient was considered having an alcohol problem if one or more of the following criteria was fulfilled: (1) a CAGE questionnaire score of 2 or more positive answers; (2) an alcohol-related diagnosis. In total, 869 patients fulfilled the entry criteria (377 patients were excluded owing to predefined exclusion criteria). A hundred and sixty-seven patients (19.2%) fulfilled 1 or 2 of the criteria for an alcohol problem. Eighty-eight patients (10.1%) had an alcohol-related discharge diagnosis. The prevalence of patients with a positive CAGE score was 13.5% and was significantly higher among male patients (22.7%) than among female patients (5.5%). The frequency of a higher socioeconomic status or the status of ‘living alone’ increased significantly with alcohol consumption.