Use of a questionnaire to obtain an alcohol history from those attending an inner city accident and emergency department.

Barrett, Theodore; Williams, Channing

doi:10.1136/emj.6.1.34

Cited by 14 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…22 Although the use of a single positive CAGE response has been studied and found as extremely sensitive for the screening of alcoholism, that result was found in a population comprised of women and among whites, as compared with the TWEAK (a mnemonic that asks questions that deal with tolerance, worry, eye-opener, amnesia, 'k'ut-down). 23, 24 This may not apply to our population. At the cutoff of two positive responses, the CAGE is less sensitive and more specific, especially for white women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Alcoholism in the Emergency Department: An Epidemiologic Study

Whiteman¹,

Hoffman²,

Goldfrank³

2000

Academic Emergency Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Objective: To describe the epidemiology of alcoholism in ED patients. Methods: Over a twomonth period, every adult patient brought by ambulance to the ED of a large municipal hospital was prospectively enrolled by questionnaire. Data collected included demographics, previous ED use, triage complaint-related diagnoses, hospital admission rates, and ethanol levels (if determined). The CAGE alcoholism questions were administered to all patients by trained assistants. The only exclusion criterion was the inability to communicate while in the ED. A chisquare analysis was used to compare categorical variables. Results: A total of 2,658 patients were enrolled in the study; 226 were unable to respond to the CAGE questions. Five hundred eighty-eight of the remaining 2,432 patients (24%) were defined as being alcoholic by an affirmative response to at least two of the CAGE questions. All four questions were answered affirmatively by 17% of the total patients. Alcoholic patients were more likely to be male (88% vs 60%), unemployed (87% vs 71%), undomiciled (46% vs 20%), polysubstance users (52% vs 25%), and tobacco users (77% vs 41%), and to have had an ED visit in the previous six months (51% vs 35%) (p < 0.001 for all tests). Ethanol levels ranged from zero to 573 mg/dL. Whereas no positive response to a single CAGE question was predictive of a final diagnosis of alcoholism, a blood ethanol level more than 300 mg/dL predicted an affirmative response to at least two CAGE questions in 97% of cases. Conclusions: Alcoholism should be presumed to be present in a substantial number of patients who present to urban EDs by ambulance.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Alcoholism in the Emergency Department: An Epidemiologic Study

Whiteman¹,

Hoffman²,

Goldfrank³

2000

Academic Emergency Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several authors have seen the need to target populations to be assessed by focussing on those who present with the greatest number of risk factors for alcohol-related pathologies (surgical emergencies, psychiatric emergencies and acute alcoholic intoxication, etc.) (Cherpitel et al, 2004;Touquet and Brown, 2009) and by using the shortest screening tests because in the ED setting, diagnostic assessment for AUDs may not be feasible, even if targeted only towards very high-risk patients (Barrett and Vaughan Williams, 1989;Whiteman et al, 2000;Vitale et al, 2006). These tests, which are much less costly in time than the diagnosis approach, are classically or systematically used by AHW to help us to distinguish accidental acute intoxication, abuse and dependence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%