Alcohol Problems Among Emergency Department Patients

Identification and Intervention

Conference Proceedings

Researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders came to the conference from around the country to review current knowledge about alcohol problems among emergency department (ED) patients and about ED-based screening and intervention methods.

The research conference on alcohol problems among emergency department (ED) patients resulted in a list of recommendations to enhance research and clinical practice in EDs. Also included are presentations and summaries of participants' discussions.

As noted in the proceedings, treatment of alcohol problems has expanded into the primary care setting. However, only cursory attention has been devoted to what may be the most important and neglected setting for case finding and risk identification: the emergency department.

Several revelations took place at the conference:

• One was the need to design a better system that would devote as many resources to managing the patient's drinking as it does to treating the medical consequences of alcohol intoxication.
• Another was the realization that the prototypical skid row alcoholic is no longer the major problem drinker encountered by ED staff; drinking to intoxication is much more typical of college students and suburban 20-year-olds.
• A third was that applied research on alcohol screening and behavioral interventions, guided by careful conceptualization and sound methodology, can make a difference in creating a knowledge base to change health policy. Insurance reimbursement, legal obstacles, and time constraints are all important reasons why drinking behavior is not addressed in ED settings. But once the elements of a solution are shown to be both feasible and scientifically compelling, the transfer of this knowledge to clinical practice can no longer be postponed, ignored, or opposed.

The conference proceedings are available in accessible PDF format (PDF Help) from the Web site of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Go to: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/alcohol_proceedings/alcohol_proceedings.htm.

Current as of January 2003

Internet Citation:

Alcohol Problems Among Emergency Department Patients. January 2003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/alcoholed.htm