Detection of patients with high alcohol intake by general practitioners.

Abstract

General practitioners have the potential to treat patients with alcohol problems effectively. Despite the medical implications of excessive alcohol intake, it appears that general practitioners are not sufficiently aware of the drinking habits of their patients. The aim of the study was to investigate the accuracy of 56 randomly chosen general practitioners in detecting which of their patients had a high alcohol intake. Altogether, 2081 patients were recruited in general practitioners' waiting rooms, where they answered questions about their drinking habits. After the consultations general practitioners were asked to indicate the patients' levels of alcohol intake. The results showed that general practitioners correctly identified only 27.5% of patients who were classified as "high risk" drinkers, using Australian Medical Association criteria. They correctly identified only 45.2% of patients who were classified as "moderate to heavy" drinkers, defined by them as drinkers who consume four or more standard drinks a day. These findings have important implications for clinical practice since they indicate that general practitioners are failing to perform adequately in an important area of preventive medicine. This issue needs to be addressed in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

General practitioners' diagnostic skills and referral practices in managing patients with drug and alcohol‐related health problems: implications for medical training and education programmes

“…We speculate that these low rates of referral may be due to the combination of low rates of detection, low rates of willingness to treat these problems, low awareness of service availability and intake procedures and finally low motivation on the part of the patients to enter a stigmatized treatment service. The low estimated detection rate is consistent with other studies, which find that GPs do not identify a majority of their at-risk patients [11,12]. It does not suggest that screening rates have improved much in response to educational and training initiatives.…”

Application of proteomic technologies to discover and identify biomarkers for excessive alcohol consumption: A review

“…This difficulty of obtaining an accurate drinking history may lead to under diagnosis of hazardous alcohol use and related disorders. Indeed, it has been reported that as few as 28% of problem drinkers are recognized by their doctors [3].…”

Undergraduate medical education in substance use in Ireland: a review of the literature and discussion paper

“…Anderson also estimates that up to 98% of those who drink to excess are not being diagnosed by GPs. A study carried out by Reid et al [19] found that only 28% of self-proclaimed heavy drinkers were identified by their GP. It is apparent that these learning objectives are not being attained.…”