As a result, emergency room staffers tend to have a cynical attitude toward all problem drinkers. Nedza said the Cincinnati study shows it is wrong to assume that it would be a waste of time to counsel binge drinkers, defined as men who have five drinks in a sitting or women who have four a sitting. We tend to see people with long-term chronic addictions who continue to harm themselves and continue drinking despite the toll it has taken on their lives. We think that because we can't impact that particular group, we can't impact any group. Sommers said the study is an offshoot of two larger ones funded by grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to determine whether counseling prevents injuries by changing drinking habits, she said.
Counseling occurs as soon as possible after patients have sobered up following the accident.
Sommers said preliminary results so far indicate that any counseling reduces repeat binging, with the 45-minute sessions being the most effective. The longer counseling sessions include comparing the patient's drinking patterns to non-binging peers, discussing strategies for avoiding drinking in trigger situations, and helping the patient take responsibility for his or her drinking by signing a contract to limit alcohol use. Planting an idea Nedza said such in-depth counseling would be impractical for emergency room physicians, but could be achieved with a team approach. College towns, in particular, might find such teams cost-effective. I tell my colleagues and residents that you may not see the results at that point, but even a small intervention that plants the idea that there may be a problem is a successful one.