Missed opportunities: the detection and management of at-risk drinking and illicit drug use in acutely hospitalized patients.

ABSTRACT: At-risk alcohol and illicit drug use are risk factors for disease and in-hospital complications. This study investigated whether clinicians document substance use in the electronic records of acutely hospitalized internal medicine patients. Alcohol and illicit drug positive patients were identified using prospectively gathered substance use data from a study sample comprising 2,872 patients included from November 2016 to December 2017 at an internal medicine hospital in Oslo, Norway. These data were unknown to hospital staff. Whether physicians recorded quantitative substance use assessments and interventions was examined in patients with study-verified alcohol use in excess of low-risk guidelines (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-4 scores [AUDIT-4] of ≥5 for women and ≥7 for men)

SUBMITTER: Gamboa D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11919628 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature