Agency Wants to Help Doctors Identify Heavy Drinkers and Get Them Treatment PromptlyTuesday, June 17, 2008; Page HE01
Agency Wants to Help Doctors Identify Heavy Drinkers and Get Them Treatment Promptly
Three decades ago, long before the dawn of the Prozac Era, depression was a disease rarely treated in its mild form, reluctantly treated with drugs and usually treated by experts only. Today, signs of depression are actively sought, drugs are prescribed early and often, and most cases are handled by non-psychiatrists.
With alcohol abuse, however, most physicians don't go looking for trouble and don't recognize it until it's breathing in their face. Over-drinking patients often don't think of looking for help even if they know they are heading in the wrong direction. And society as a rule looks at alcohol treatment as a last-chance, 90-degree corner taken only at high speed.
All this will change if American physicians adopt the new guidelines for "Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much" promulgated by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.
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