Brief Interventions for Alcohol Abuse in Primary Health Care

This work aimed to identify, and characterize the field of evaluation studies of brief interventions (BI) for alcohol abuse in primary health care. A bibliographical search was carried out, using databases (Medline, PsycInfo, Lilacs), to identify empirical studies - clinical trials - with comparative evaluation of the results of BIs, published between January 1990 and December 2003. Twenty six studies were identified, most of them published in the United States of America during 1997. These studies evaluated the effectiveness of brief counseling intervention with the use of educational materials and follow up evaluation on problematic alcohol users. The majority showed that BIs reduce the consumption of alcohol. The most common study design was longitudinal, randomized clinical trial. The most frequent outcome measure was the alcohol drinking consumption pattern. There is no standardization of BIs procedures. BI were found to be effective in 25 studies. No Latin American and Caribbean studies in Lilacs were found.