PROMPTING ALCOHOLICS TO BE REFERRED TO AN ALCOHOL CLINIC - THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A SIMPLE LETTER

Many patients received in emergency units (EU) of hospitals present al cohol-related problems. Most are alcohol dependent or abusers and ente r for drunkenness, stay a few hours and return home. To assess the eff ectiveness of a letter referring these patients to an outpatient alcoh olism treatment clinic, we performed a randomized study. For 6 months, all the patients who had been diagnosed as alcoholic, who had an addr ess and who had not consulted a physician for alcoholism in the 6 prev ious months were selected from the records of the EU of a French unive rsity hospital. At least 2 days after their stay in the EU, we sent a fetter to 181 patients of an experimental group (group E) suggesting t hey make an appointment with a physician specializing in alcoholism. N o letter was sent to 181 patients in a control group (group C). Six mo nths later, 21 patients (11.2%) of group E had called the outpatient a lcoholism treatment clinic to make an appointment and came to a consul tation. Two of the 181 patients of group C came to the consultation. T he effectiveness of this method for referring alcoholics to a clinic h ad been controlled by another prospective study. We concluded that sen ding a letter 2 days after the passage of an alcoholic to art EU for d runkenness is a useful method of referral to an outpatient alcoholism treatment clinic.