Annals of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
DIAL: a telephone brief intervention for high-risk alcohol use with injured emergency department patients.
Brief interventions for high-risk alcohol use for injured emergency department (ED) patients have demonstrated effectiveness and may have a more pronounced effect with motor vehicle crash patients. We report on 3-month outcome data of a randomized controlled trial of injured patients, using a novel model of telephone-delivered brief interventions after ED discharge. ⋯ Telephone brief interventions decreased impaired driving in our treatment group. Telephone brief intervention appears to offer an alternative mechanism to deliver brief intervention for alcohol in this at-risk ED population.
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Emergency physicians use noncontrast cranial computed tomographic (CT) imaging of headache patients to identify subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by aneurysms or arteriovenous malformations. Given sufficiently high sensitivity, CT imaging could be used as a definitive diagnostic study in these patients. The purpose of this study is to determine the sensitivity of noncontrast cranial CT in detecting all spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhages and those caused by aneurysm or arteriovenous malformation. ⋯ Noncontrast CT imaging exhibits inadequate sensitivity to serve as a sole diagnostic modality in detecting spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by aneurysm or arteriovenous malformation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Brief intervention for hazardous and harmful drinkers in the emergency department.
To determine the efficacy of emergency practitioner-performed brief intervention for hazardous/harmful drinkers in reducing alcohol consumption and negative consequences in an emergency department (ED) setting. ⋯ Among ED patients with hazardous/harmful drinking, we did not detect a difference in efficacy between emergency practitioner-performed Brief Negotiation Interview and Discharge Instructions. Further studies to test the efficacy of brief intervention in the ED are needed.
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The primary objective of this study is to measure career satisfaction among emergency physicians participating in the 1994, 1999, and 2004 American Board of Emergency Medicine Longitudinal Study of Emergency Physicians. The secondary objectives are to determine factors associated with high and low career satisfaction and burnout. ⋯ Overall, more than half of emergency physicians reported high levels of career satisfaction. Although career satisfaction has remained high among emergency physicians, concern about burnout is substantial.