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The Adequacy of Screening, Documenting, and Treating the Diseases of Substance Abuse
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The Adequacy of Screening, Documenting, and Treating the Diseases of Substance Abuse

Tim B. Hopkins, Vincent J. Zarro and Thomas G. McCarter
Journal of addictive diseases, v 13(2), pp 81-87
25 Mar 1994
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J069v13n02_07
PMID: 8204677
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

In a large inner-city teaching hospital, only 28 percent of over 1000 consecutive hospital admissions received proper screening for diseases of substance abuse. Although the CAGE questions are currently considered the best screening test for quickly assessing an alcohol abuse history, not a single CAGE question was documented during our 23 day study. Of the 1010 patients in the study, 160 or 16% were found to be substance abusers. Of these, 57 (37%) were properly screened by the physician team and 8 (5%) received adequate follow-up treatment for their substance abuse by way of social service or psychiatric consultation, or documented counselling by their physician. Physicians are not adequately screening for the diseases of substance abuse, and are not appropriately evaluating and referring patients who are known to be substance abusers. Meaningful training of medical students and physicians is necessary to increase awareness and produce positive behavior change.

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13 Record Views
13 citations in Web of Science
18 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Web of Science research areas
Substance Abuse
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