Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention

On an almost daily basis, primary care clinicians have an opportunity to interact with patients who drink too much. Sometimes the patient comes in for an alcohol-related injury, sometimes there are clues on a routine visit, but the extent of alcohol use often is not clear until the clinician questions the patient. How you interact with the patient, what you say, and how you say it have a lot to do with whether the patient will be responsive or even consider making a change in drinking. Brief intervention is a format that can be integrated into the clinician's history taking. Investing the time to talk to patients about their alcohol use has the potential to make a difference in their lives.