Screening for Unhealthy Alcohol and Drug Use in General Medicine Settings

Med Clin North Am. 2022 Jan;106(1):13-28. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2021.08.002.

Abstract

Unhealthy alcohol and drug use are among the top 10 causes of preventable death in the United States, but they are infrequently identified and addressed in medical settings. Guidelines recommend screening adult primary care patients for alcohol and drug use, and routine screening should be a component of high-quality clinical care. Brief, validated screening tools accurately detect unhealthy alcohol and drug use, and their thoughtful implementation can facilitate adoption and optimize the quality of screening results. Recommendations for implementation include patient self-administered screening tools, integration with electronic health records, and screening during routine primary care visits.

Keywords: Alcohol screening; Drug screening; Implementation; Primary care; Substance use disorders; Unhealthy alcohol use; Unhealthy drug use.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Alcoholism / diagnosis
  • Alcoholism / epidemiology
  • Electronic Health Records
  • Female
  • Health Plan Implementation / methods
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mass Screening / methods*
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic
  • Primary Health Care / methods*
  • Primary Health Care / standards
  • Self-Assessment
  • Substance Abuse Detection / methods
  • Substance-Related Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Substance-Related Disorders / epidemiology
  • Substance-Related Disorders / mortality
  • United States / epidemiology