An attempt to improve the identification of alcohol-dependent patients in a teaching general hospital

The information on drinking habits contained in medical records with that obtained through the CAGE alcoholism screening test was compared for 124 inpatients of a teaching general hospital. This survey was followed by testing the possibility of introducing the CAGE test into the routine clinical interview. A second analysis of 110 medical records performed 2 months later indicated the failure of this attempt, as the general pattern of information on drinking habits remained unaltered and characterized by either no information at all or information that was too ambiguous to be of clinical value. Among the different hypotheses that could account for the negative results is the possibility that physicians are not sufficiently informed on the wide spectrum of clinical disorders associated to alcohol abuse. Another important factor is the lack of motivation shown by attending physicians to detect less obvious cases of alcohol dependence as they feel pessimistic about dealing with this condition.