Pragmatic Procedures for Detecting and Documenting Alcoholism in Medical Patients

Abstract

Although alcoholics are known to utilize a disproportionate amount of medical care, hospital patients are not routinely screened for alcoholism. A sample of 310 randomly selected patients from two hospitals were administered a structured diagnostic interview. More than one-third (35%) of the men and 14% of the women met DSM-III criteria for a current alcohol use disorder and an additional 27% of the men and 9% of the women met criteria for an alcohol use disorder in remission. The practicality and efficiency of structured interviews is discussed along with the potential of a small subset of items to serve as a screen for alcoholism.

Point prevalence of alcoholism in hospitalized patients: continuing challenges of detection, assessment, and diagnosis

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] This broad range of prevalence rates may reflect widely varying demographic factors, multiple criteria sets, and differing screening methods for alcoholism across studies. Since that time, multiple studies have assessed alcohol abuse and dependence among medical, surgical, and psychiatric inpatients.…”

A Substance Abuse Consultation Service

“…Fourteen percent of the hospitalized patients screened by Sherin et al 5 had MAST scores suggestive of alcoholism. Other more recent studies report current alcoholism prevalence rates of 15% to 30% 6–10 and even higher rates for trauma (40%) and psychiatric (39%) inpatients 11,12 …”

Response times for the CAGE, short-MAST, AUDIT, and JELLINEK alcohol scales

“…Practical (i.e., reliable, but brief) methods of detection are needed to help identify individuals with alcohol disorder (Hoffmann et al, 1989;Nichol & Ford, 1986).…”