2023-10-26 14:58:08
October 26, 2023
The High Authority for Health (HAS) denounces “an under-diagnosis of drinking behavior” and publishes new recommendations for “systematic identification of all uses”. It aims to provide better support for patients, even for those who do not tick all the addiction boxes.
Is alcohol consumption a public health issue taken seriously enough by health professionals? Alcohol remains the most consumed psychoactive substance in France. 87% of people aged 18 to 75 have used it during the year, as have 77% of young people aged 17. And almost half of them practice what is called binge drinkinga very significant one-off consumption in a short period of time.
“The resistance of health professionals” in the viewfinder
The figures provided by the High Health Authority are final. But the HAS considers the response of the health system to be inadequate. « We thus observe the absence of systematic and generalized identification of alcohol use, but also an under-diagnosis of drinking behaviors and their complications. Even today, many professionals believe that alcohol is only a legitimate issue in the advanced stages of alcohol use disorder (addiction). alerts the HAS in a press release dated October 26.
With the publication of new recommendations, she hopes to break down the resistance of health professionals “socially and culturally exposed to alcohol and its representations, like any other citizen”.
Protect patients and those around them
HAS thus wishes to involve more primary care professionals, those to whom patients first turn. These are dentists, dietitians, nurses, general practitioners, pediatricians, pharmacists, occupational medicine professionals, gynecologists, midwives, PMI professionals, school and university professionals, emergency professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, social and medico-social workers. Objective: rely on them “to reduce the risk associated with alcohol through systematic, early and regular identification of all uses and support for each person, whatever their particular situation”.
As a reminder, the majority of alcohol-related harm affects people who do not suffer from addiction. Alcohol is the leading cause of hospitalization, the second leading cause of preventable mortality and preventable cancer. It also affects others: neurodevelopmental disorders linked to fetal alcohol represent 0.5% to 1% of births, alcohol is involved in 30% of fatal road accidents and 30% of cases of sexual violence, physical or psychological.
To note : according to the 2017 Public Health France barometer, only 16.8% of people aged 18 to 75 who had consulted a general practitioner in the last 12 months reported that the issue of alcohol consumption had been discussed. However, 87% of them considered it normal for their doctor to question them on this subject.
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Source : Dialogue between general practitioner and patient: tobacco and alcohol consumption in question, from the patient’s point of view, Public Health France, 2020 – Alcohol: supporting each person to reduce their risk, HAS, October 26, 2023
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Written by : Dorothée Duchemin – Edited by Emmanuel Ducreuzet
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