Harmful alcohol consumption and use of tranquilizers Screening and brief intervention in general practice

Background. Hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption may cause anxiety or sleeping trouble. Screening and brief alcohol intervention (SBAI) aims to screen for hazardous and harmful non addictive alcohol consumption to promote a preventive and therapeutic intervention. This study was nested in an educative project implementing SBAI in general practice with GP trainees. Aims. To evaluate the feasibility of screening and the rate of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumers in patients consulting in general practice vocational training schemes. To confirm social risk factors. To investigate whether hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption could be linked to the use of tranquilizers. Method. Multicentre cross-sectional study in a population consulting in general practice in Northern France. Quantitative data collection was based on the French FACE five questions alcohol screening test (regularly used for SBAI purpose) and looked after the prescription of tranquillizers in the medical record. Multivariate analysis was performed. Feasibility data were monthly collected by means of registrars' and trainers' peer-groups. Results. Implementation of SBAI was disturbing for the organization of the trainers' consultation planning. We included 392 patients between November 2011 and May 2012. Among these, 22.00% (95CI=18.41-26.90) were screened positive for hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption (FACE score between 4 and 8). Sex ratio: 1.44. The rate reached 25.24% in males (OR=1.87; 95CI=1.05-3.34). Use of benzodiazepines was linked with alcohol consumption in patients scoring > 4 (OR=2.07; 95CI=1.12-3.82). The dwelling and the socioprofessional category of the patients were poor predictors of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption. Conclusion. SBAI with the FACE questionnaire is difficult to implement for mass screening in general practice. Alcohol consumption has mainly to be investigated in males and in patients consuming tranquillizers.