RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 General Practitioners Recognizing Alcohol Dependence: A Large Cross-Sectional Study in 6 European Countries
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 28
OP 32
DO 10.1370/afm.1742
VO 13
IS 1
A1 Jürgen Rehm
A1 Allaman Allamani
A1 Roberto Della Vedova
A1 Zsuzsanna Elekes
A1 Andrzej Jakubczyk
A1 Inga Landsmane
A1 Jakob Manthey
A1 José Moreno-España
A1 Lars Pieper
A1 Charlotte Probst
A1 Sigita Snikere
A1 Pierluigi Struzzo
A1 Fabio Voller
A1 Hans-Ulrich Wittchen
A1 Antoni Gual
A1 Marcin Wojnar
YR 2015
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/13/1/28.abstract
AB PURPOSE Although alcohol dependence causes marked mortality and disease burden in Europe, the treatment rate is low. Primary care could play a key role in reducing alcohol-attributable harm by screening, brief interventions, and initiating or referral to treatment. This study investigates identification of alcohol dependence in European primary care settings. METHODS Assessments from 13,003 general practitioners, and 9,098 interviews (8,476 joint number of interviewed patients with a physician’s assessment) were collected in 6 European countries. Alcohol dependence, comorbidities, and health service utilization were assessed by the general practitioner and independently using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and other structured interviews. Weighted regression analyses were used to compare the impact of influencing variables on both types of diagnoses. RESULTS The rate of patients being identified as alcohol dependent by the CIDI or a general practitioner was about equally high, but there was not a lot of overlap between cases identified. Alcohol-dependent patients identified by a physician were older, had higher rates of physicial comorbidity (liver disease, hypertension), and were socially more marginalized, whereas average consumption of alcohol and mental comorbidity were equally high in both groups. CONCLUSION General practitioners were able to identify alcohol dependence, but the cases they identified differed from cases identified using the CIDI. The role of the CIDI as the reference standard should be reexamined, as older alcohol-dependent patients with severe comorbidities seemed to be missed in this assessment.