Alcohol related problems are one of the leading causes of morbidity and premature death. Primary care is ideal for early detection and secondary prevention of alcohol-related problems and brief interventions have been shown to reduce excessive consumption in primary care patients.
However, General Practitioners (GPs) exhibit low levels of formal identification, treatment and referral of patients with alcohol related problems. In a survey carried out in 1999, GPs reported receiving more alcohol-related education than in previous studies, that they were prepared to counsel patients about reducing consumption and that a perceived lack of effectiveness in helping patients change alcohol consumption could be ameliorated by more information, training and support.
However, GPs were little involved in, and poorly motivated to work with, alcohol issues and identification of alcohol problems was hampered by a focus on physical symptoms. Compared to other areas of lifestyle counselling (e.g. smoking cessation, diet and physical activity), GPs reported that the largest gap between their preparedness to intervene and their sense of being a success at changing behaviour was for alcohol issues.
Given that alcohol has risen higher up the public policy agenda, it is timely to assess if personal, organisational and structural factors have altered over time to promote alcohol intervention work.
The aim of this study was therefore to assess the current knowledge, attitudes and practices of GPs concerning brief alcohol intervention and to examine whether these had changed over the last ten years and in light of recent health policy initiatives.
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