PRIMARY HEALTH CARE AND ALCOHOL

In his famous novel 'Anna Karenina' Konstantin Levin, a farmer who is commonly considered to represent the author Leo Tolstoy himself, listens to another farmer's opinions on the land reform. He highly respects these opinions which, as he says, 'had been brought not by a desire of finding some exercise for an idle brain, but a thought which had grown up out of the conditions of his life'. Researchers and policy makers, far from the realities of primary health care, seem to be more interested in brief alcohol interventions for hazardous drinkers than do general practitioners or other professionals working in this setting. Should brief intervention be removed to some other setting, buried forever as not being suitable for real life, or would it just now be perfect time for general practitioners and nurses in primary health care to take command of brief interventions and make it suitable for their own setting?