• Jean-Bernard Daeppen, Jacques Gaume, Pierre Bady, Bertrand Yersin, Jean-Marie Calmes, Jean-Claude Givel, and Gerhard Gmel.
• Emergency Department, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland. jean-bernard.daeppen@chuv.ch
• Addiction. 2007 Aug 1;102(8):1224-33.

AimsTo evaluate the effectiveness of brief alcohol intervention (BAI) in reducing alcohol use among hazardous drinkers treated in the emergency department (ED) after an injury; in addition it tests whether assessment of alcohol use without BAI is sufficient to reduce hazardous drinking.DesignRandomized controlled clinical trial with 12-month follow-up conducted between January 2003 and June 2005.SettingUrban academic emergency department (ED) of the Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.ParticipantsA total of 5136 consecutive patients attending ED after an injury completed a seven-item general and a three-item alcohol screen and 1472 (28.7%) were positive for hazardous drinking according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Addiction definition; of these 987 (67.1%) were randomized into a BAI group (n = 310) or a control group with screening and assessment (n = 342) or a control group with screening only (n = 335) and then a total of 770 patients (78.0%) completed the 12-month follow-up procedures.InterventionA single 10-15-minute session of standardized BAI conducted by a trained research assistant.MeasurementsPercentage of participants who have changed to low-risk drinking at follow-up.FindingsData obtained at 12 months indicated that similar proportions were low-risk drinkers in BAI versus control groups with and without assessment (35.6%, 34.0%, 37.0%, respectively, P = 0.71). Data also indicated similar reductions in drinking frequency, quantity, binge drinking frequency and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores across groups. All groups reported similar numbers of days hospitalized and numbers of medical consults in the last 12 months. A model including age groups, gender, AUDIT and injury severity scores indicated that BAI had no influence on the main alcohol use outcome.ConclusionsThis study provides the evidence that a 10-15-minute BAI does not decrease alcohol use and health resource utilization in hazardous drinkers treated in the ED, and demonstrates that commonly found decreases in hazardous alcohol use in control groups cannot be attributed to the baseline alcohol assessment.

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