Primary care clinicians should screen adults for risky drinking behaviors and offer brief behavioral counseling interventions to those who screen positive (grade B recommendation), according to a draft recommendation statement published by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

With respect to hazardous drinking in adolescents, the task force says the evidence to weigh the risks and benefits of screening and counseling is insufficient (grade I). Both recommendations reaffirm the group’s last guidance on the topic, published in 2004.

A USPSTF evidence review supporting the draft statement appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The review points out that counseling can reduce, among adults, both the number of weekly drinks and the number of heavy-drinking episodes. In clinical trials, such counseling generally involved multiple, brief contacts with primary care clinicians. Of note, the trials usually excluded individuals with alcohol dependence, so the evidence is limited to those with drinking behaviors characterized as “risky” or “hazardous.”

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine article