Comparison between Different Methods of Detecting Patients with Excessive Consumption of Alcohol

Abstract

A study of excessive alcohol consumption was carried out on 2114 adult somatic outpatients. All patients were evaluated by the following methods: Blood-chemical tests (serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (S-GT), serum aspartate aminotransferase (S-ASAT) and ethanol), patient's and doctor's questionnaires, and analysis of data from psychiatric records, social welfare registers and alcohol ambulatory services. Records from psychiatric clinics detected 48% of the patients. Forty per cent of the alcohol patients had S-GT levels > 0.9 μkat/l. S-ASAT and blood ethanol levels were of little informative value. The doctors recognized excessive consumption in 25% of the patients. Only 16% of the alcohol patients reported excessive consumption (> 280 g of ethanol/week). The combination of S-GT and questionnaires to patients and doctors detected 63% of the alcohol patients. Both in epidemiological studies and in clinical practice it seems appropriate to use combinations of different methods to detect patients with underlying alcohol problems.