Brief Intervention Helps Emergency Patients Reduce Drinking

Asking emergency department patients about their alcohol use and talking with them about how to reduce harmful drinking patterns is an effective way to lower rates of risky drinking in these patients, according to a nationwide collaborative study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).