Greater Access to Alcohol Treatment Goal of New NIAAA Guide

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has issued an updated version of “Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much: A Clinician's Guide.”

The guide is designed to help clinicians in general practice and nonspecialists in mental health settings treat patients for alcohol dependence, especially those who don't have access to or reject treatment from specialists.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimates that 15.8 million of the 18 million people who have alcohol problems do not seek treatment. Data collected by NIAAA's National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in 2001 and 2002 indicated that almost 40 percent of people who reported surviving a major depressive episode had also developed an alcohol use disorder (Psychiatric News, February 17, 2006).

The revised edition of the guide adds information about naltrexone extended-release injectable suspension, a once-monthly injectable medication for alcohol-dependence treatment the Food and Drug Administration approved in April 2006.

The guide includes a new medications management program that consists of brief, structured outpatient sessions designed for easy use in nonspecialty out-patient settings by physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals. According to NIAAA, applying the guide's medication management approach in nonspecialty settings will greatly expand access to effective treatment, since many patients with alcohol dependence either don't have access to specialty treatment or refuse referrals to specialists.

Mental health clinicians who wish to provide specialized counseling will find new information about a state-of-the-art behavioral intervention developed for patients who received pharmacotherapy during a recent clinical trial.

“The clinician's guide is a brief, focused, and valuable tool,” said Eric Strain, M.D., medical director of the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chair of APA's Council on Addiction Psychiatry. “This revision provides important new information about alcohol-use disorders and their treatment. Mental health care professionals and the general medical community should find it an extremely useful resource that is quick and easy to use. Psychiatrists, too, might also find it useful.”

The updated version of “Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much” is posted at<http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/Practitioner/CliniciansGuide2005/clinicians_guide.htm>.▪