Doctors urged to log drinking habits better to help treat people with alcohol issues 

Hundreds of thousands of people in need of free alcohol dependency treatment could get help more readily following new guidance urging GPs to monitor drinking habits much better in future, according to the Guardian.

Experts say that millions of people are either mildly or moderately dependent on alcohol, while hundreds of thousands have a severe dependency and are missing out on treatment or a referral to specialist services that could help. 

The new guidance has been drawn up by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), and is aimed at family doctors, as well as health, social care, voluntary sector and criminal justice workers, in England and Wales. They are urged to log information properly and in detail with validated questionnaires. 

The move has been welcomed by Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of the charity Alcohol Change UK. 

He said: “Over 10 million people in the UK consume alcohol at levels that pose a risk to their health and millions of us have mild or moderate dependency on alcohol – when we try to stop drinking, we often find it harder than we expect.

“Around 600,000 people have severe alcohol dependency and will, as a result, benefit hugely from professional alcohol treatment.

“Professional alcohol treatment is commissioned by local authorities across England and provided for free to everyone who needs it. And it works. However, there is currently a big problem: only around one in six of the people who could benefit from alcohol treatment actually take it up.”