Do primary care physicians screen patients about alcohol intake using the CAGE questions ?

The performances of 134 primary care physicians at initial screening about alcohol use and screening with the CAGE questions were assessed using 17 standardized patients. For three-fourths of the standardized patients, more than 50% of the physicians asked an initial alcohol screening question. Howe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM 1995-11, Vol.10 (11), p.631-634
Main Authors: WENRICH, M. D, PAAUW, D. S, CARLINE, J. D, CURTIS, J. R, RAMSEY, P. G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcoholism - diagnosis
Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning
Biological and medical sciences
Family Practice - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Internal Medicine - statistics & numerical data
Medical History Taking - methods
Medical sciences
Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data
Primary Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Surveys and Questionnaires
Toxicology
Washington
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The performances of 134 primary care physicians at initial screening about alcohol use and screening with the CAGE questions were assessed using 17 standardized patients. For three-fourths of the standardized patients, more than 50% of the physicians asked an initial alcohol screening question. However, use of the CAGE questions with six patients who reported drinking more than one drink per day was less consistent; for most of these patients, few physicians asked any CAGE questions. Fewer than 50% of the physicians included alcohol abuse in the differential diagnosis for three of four patients who drank four or more drinks per day. Methods are needed to incorporate the CAGE questions into primary care practices in a more systematic manner.
ISSN:0884-8734
1525-1497
DOI:10.1007/BF02602748