Brief interventions for heavy alcohol users admitted to general hospital wards

Brief interventions involve a time-limited intervention focusing on changing behaviour. They are often motivational in nature using counselling skills to encourage a reduction in alcohol consumption.

To determine whether brief interventions reduce alcohol consumption and improve outcomes for heavy alcohol users admitted to general hospital inpatient units.

We searched the Cochrane Drug and Alcohol Group Register of Trials (June 2008) the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library 2, 2008), MEDLINE January 1966-June 2008, CINAHL 1982-June 2008, EMBASE 1980-June 2008 using the search strategy developed by the Cochrane Drug and Alcohol Group. We hand searched relevant journals, conference proceedings and contacted experts in the field.

All prospective randomised controlled trials and controlled clinical trials were eligible for inclusion. Participants were adults (16 years or older) admitted to general inpatient hospital care for any reason other than specifically for alcohol treatment and received brief interventions (of up to 3 sessions) compared to no or regular treatment.

Three reviewers independently selected the studies and extracted data. Where appropriate random effects meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed.

Eleven studies involving 2441 participants were included in this review. Three results were non significant and one result was significant mean alcohol consumption per week change scores from baseline (P0.02).

The evidence for brief interventions delivered to heavy alcohol users admitted to general hospital is still inconclusive. From data extracted from two studies it appears that alcohol consumption could be reduced at one year follow up though further research is recommended. Few studies have been retrieved and the results were difficult to combine because of the different measures used to assess alcohol consumption.