TY - JOUR PY - 1981// TI - Early identification of alcohol abuse: 2: Clinical and laboratory indicators JO - Canadian Medical Association journal A1 - Holt, S. A1 - Skinner, H. A. A1 - Israel, Y. SP - 1279 EP - 94, 1299 VL - 124 IS - 10 N2 - Despite awareness of the wide variety of clinical and laboratory abnormalities associated with alcohol abuse, drinking problems often remain undetected in hospital and in general medical practice. The diagnosis of alcohol abuse has been emphasized repeatedly in the literature but far less attention has been paid to indicators that would permit detection of excessive drinking at a stage when intervention might be more effective and less costly. The search for indicators of early alcohol abuse is complicated since many of the medical sequelae of alcoholism are nonspecific and may only be manifested after a number of years of excessive drinking. Part 2 of this two-part series considers various clinical and laboratory features related to alcohol abuse and highlights items that are potentially more sensitive for detecting early stages of problem drinking. Use by physicians of a composite profile of both biomedical and psychosocial indicators of excessive alcohol consumption is recommended for early identification of this problem.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0008-4409 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -