TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence, Detection, and Treatment of Alcoholism in Hospitalized Patients
AU - Moore, Richard D.
AU - Bone, Lee R.
AU - Geller, Gail
AU - Mamon, Joyce A.
AU - Stokes, Emma J.
AU - Levine, David M.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1989/1/20
Y1 - 1989/1/20
N2 - As part of an institution-wide program to enhance the education of physicians in diagnosing and treating alcohol dependence and abuse, a comprehensive survey was conducted in which all new admissions to the adult inpatient services of The Johns Hopkins Hospital were screened for alcoholism. The prevalence of screen-positive alcoholism, by department, was as follows: medicine (25%), psychiatry (30%), neurology (19%), obstetrics-gynecology (12.5%), and surgery (23%). Detection rates by the house staff and faculty physicians caring for those patients who screened positively were less than 25% in surgery and obstetrics-gynecology, between 25% and 50% in neurology and medicine, and greater than 50% in psychiatry. However, physicians were less likely to identify as alcoholic those patients with higher incomes, higher education, or private medical insurance; women; and those who denied heavy alcohol intake. Physician-instituted treatment rates for those patients diagnosed by the physician as having nonrecovered alcoholism were less than 50% in surgery and obstetrics-gynecology, between 50% and 75% in medicine and neurology, and 100% in psychiatry. The extent to which the physicians intervened while the patient was hospitalized correlated with the patient’s reported change in alcohol use after discharge. Recommendations based on these data are being incorporated into the medical education curriculum.
AB - As part of an institution-wide program to enhance the education of physicians in diagnosing and treating alcohol dependence and abuse, a comprehensive survey was conducted in which all new admissions to the adult inpatient services of The Johns Hopkins Hospital were screened for alcoholism. The prevalence of screen-positive alcoholism, by department, was as follows: medicine (25%), psychiatry (30%), neurology (19%), obstetrics-gynecology (12.5%), and surgery (23%). Detection rates by the house staff and faculty physicians caring for those patients who screened positively were less than 25% in surgery and obstetrics-gynecology, between 25% and 50% in neurology and medicine, and greater than 50% in psychiatry. However, physicians were less likely to identify as alcoholic those patients with higher incomes, higher education, or private medical insurance; women; and those who denied heavy alcohol intake. Physician-instituted treatment rates for those patients diagnosed by the physician as having nonrecovered alcoholism were less than 50% in surgery and obstetrics-gynecology, between 50% and 75% in medicine and neurology, and 100% in psychiatry. The extent to which the physicians intervened while the patient was hospitalized correlated with the patient’s reported change in alcohol use after discharge. Recommendations based on these data are being incorporated into the medical education curriculum.
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U2 - 10.1001/jama.1989.03420030077033
DO - 10.1001/jama.1989.03420030077033
M3 - Article
C2 - 2909780
AN - SCOPUS:0024600152
SN - 0098-7484
VL - 261
SP - 403
EP - 407
JO - JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
JF - JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
IS - 3
ER -