Brief intervention

Brief intervention can often be referred to as screening and brief intervention (SBI) or, in England, identification and brief advice (IBA). Brief interventions are a technique used to initiate change for an unhealthy or risky behaviour such as smoking, lack of exercise or alcohol misuse. This page primarily describes brief interventions as applied to alcohol. As an alcohol intervention it is typically targeted to non-dependent drinkers, or drinkers who might be experiencing problems but are not seeking treatment.[1] It is an approach which aims to prevent the acceleration or impact of alcohol problems, and/or to reduce alcohol consumption. It can be carried out in a range of settings such as in primary care,[2] emergency or other hospital departments,[3] criminal justice settings,[4] workplaces,[5] online,[6][7] university/college settings,[8][9] and other settings.

Brief intervention includes 'screening' or 'identification' whereby a person's drinking risk level is assessed using a validated tool such as the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). This is then followed by some degree of feedback on this assessment. Alcohol Brief Interventions can be brief, such as delivered in a single session, or extended with multiple components or designed to be used multiple times.

It works in two ways:

  • by getting people to think differently about their alcohol use so that they begin to think about or make changes in their alcohol consumption.
  • by providing those who choose to drink with skills that allow them to consume alcoholic beverages in a safer way.
  1. ^ National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. PH24. Alcohol use disorders—preventing harmful drinking: guidance. 2010. http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PH24/Guidance/pdf/English
  2. ^ Bertholet, N., Daeppen, J. B., Wietlisbach, V., Fleming, M., & Burnand, B. (2005). Reduction of alcohol consumption by brief alcohol intervention in primary care: systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of internal medicine, 165(9), 986-995. doi:10.1001/archinte.165.9.986
  3. ^ Pedersen, B., Oppedal, K., Egund, L., & Tønnesen, H. (2011). Will emergency and surgical patients participate in and complete alcohol interventions? A systematic review. BMC surgery, 11(1), 26.https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2482-11-26
  4. ^ Newbury-Birch, D., McGovern, R., Birch, J., O'Neill, G., Kaner, H., Sondhi, A., & Lynch, K. (2016). A rapid systematic review of what we know about alcohol use disorders and brief interventions in the criminal justice system. International Journal of Prisoner Health. 12(1): 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-08-2015-0024
  5. ^ Schulte, B., O’Donnell, A. J., Kastner, S., Schmidt, C. S., Schäfer, I., & Reimer, J. (2014). Alcohol screening and brief intervention in workplace settings and social services: a comparison of literature. Frontiers in psychiatry, 5, 131. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00131
  6. ^ Boumparis, N., Schulte, M.H.J. & Riper, H. Digital Mental Health for Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders. Curr Treat Options Psych 6, 352–366 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40501-019-00190-y
  7. ^ McCambridge, Jim; Bendtsen, Marcus; Karlsson, Nadine; White, Ian R.; Nilsen, Per; Bendtsen, Preben (November 2013). "Alcohol assessment and feedback by email for university students: main findings from a randomised controlled trial". British Journal of Psychiatry. 203 (5): 334–340. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.113.128660. PMC 3814613. PMID 24072758.
  8. ^ Samson, J. E., & Tanner-Smith, E. E. (2015). Single-session alcohol interventions for heavy drinking college students: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 76(4), 530-543. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2015.76.530
  9. ^ McCambridge, Jim; Bendtsen, Marcus; Karlsson, Nadine; White, Ian R.; Nilsen, Per; Bendtsen, Preben (November 2013). "Alcohol assessment and feedback by email for university students: main findings from a randomised controlled trial". British Journal of Psychiatry. 203 (5): 334–340. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.113.128660. PMC 3814613. PMID 24072758.