PURPOSE Although alcohol dependence causes marked mortality and disease burden in Europe, the treatment rate is low. Primary care could play a key role in reducing alcohol-attributable harm by screening, brief interventions, and initiating or referral to treatment. This study investigates identification of alcohol dependence in European primary care settings. METHODS Assessments from 13,003 general practitioners, and 9,098 interviews (8,476 joint number of interviewed patients with a physician’s assessment) were collected in 6 European countries. Alcohol dependence, comorbidities, and health service utilization were assessed by the general practitioner and independently using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and other structured interviews. Weighted regression analyses were used to compare the impact of influencing variables on both types of diagnoses.\udRESULTS The rate of patients being identified as alcohol dependent by the CIDI\udor a general practitioner was about equally high, but there was not a lot of overlap\udbetween cases identified. Alcohol-dependent patients identified by a physician\udwere older, had higher rates of physicial comorbidity (liver disease, hypertension),\udand were socially more marginalized, whereas average consumption of\udalcohol and mental comorbidity were equally high in both groups.\udCONCLUSION General practitioners were able to identify alcohol dependence,\udbut the cases they identified differed from cases identified using the CIDI. The\udrole of the CIDI as the reference standard should be reexamined, as older alcohol-\uddependent patients with severe comorbidities seemed to be missed in this\udassessment.
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