Screening for alcohol and drug use disorders among adults in primary care: a review.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 supports integration
of substance abuse interventions and treatments into the mainstream health care system.
Thus, effective screening and intervention for substance use disorders in health care
settings is a priority. OBJECTIVE: This paper reviews the prevalence of alcohol and
drug use disorders (abuse or dependence) in primary care settings and emergency departments,
as well as current screening tools and brief interventions. METHODS: MEDLINE was searched
using the following keywords: alcohol use, alcohol use disorder, drug use, drug use
disorder, screening, primary care, and emergency departments. Using the related-articles
link, additional articles were screened for inclusion. This review focuses on alcohol
and drug use and related disorders among adults in primary care settings. CONCLUSION:
Screening, brief intervention, and referral for treatment are feasible and effective
in primary care settings, provided that funding for screening is available, along
with brief interventions and treatment facilities to which patients can be referred
and treated promptly.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11007Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.2147/SAR.S30057Publication Info
Pilowsky, Daniel J; & Wu, Li-Tzy (2012). Screening for alcohol and drug use disorders among adults in primary care: a review.
Subst Abuse Rehabil, 3(1). pp. 25-34. 10.2147/SAR.S30057. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11007.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Li-Tzy Wu
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Education/Training: Pre- and post-doctoral training in mental health service research,
psychiatric epidemiology (NIMH T32), and addiction epidemiology (NIDA T32) from Johns
Hopkins University School of Public Health (Maryland); Fellow of the NIH Summer Institute
on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials.Director: Duke Community Based
Substance Use Disorder Research Program.Research interests: COVID-19, Opioid misuse,
Opioid overdose, Opioid use disorder

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