[Alcohol consumption and the diagnosis of alcoholic patients in primary care]

To find the frequency of investigation of alcohol-related problems and how often alcoholic patients are identified in primary care.

A descriptive cross-sectional [correction of crossover] study.

An urban health centre.

219 patients over 15 who attended an appointment occasioned by a CAGE questionnaire validation study. 108 had answered affirmatively some of the questions in the test and 111 had answered the four questions negatively.

Diagnoses of alcoholism based on the fulfillment of the DSM-III criteria and/or on the presence of alcoholic consumption of > or = 60 grammes per day for men or 30 grammes per day for women were investigated. Additionally, each patient's medical records were checked to see whether their habitual alcohol consumption or a diagnosis of alcoholism were recorded. 54 patients were diagnosed as alcoholic. Previous inquiries into consumption of alcohol were recorded in the medical records of 167 patients (76.2%). A diagnosis of alcoholism was found to be recorded in 19 of the 54 patients who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of our study (35.2%) and in 3 patients who did not fulfil those criteria.

Although good records of patients' habits of alcohol consumption existed, 64.8% of those diagnosed as alcoholic in our study had not been previously identified as such. This must lead us to question the efficacy of our usual diagnostic methods.