Alcohol: Brief interventions for hazardous drinking and dependency

Alcohol problems including hazardous drinking, or harmful or higher-risk drinking, can be screened and identified, and brief advice given by health and social care professionals to reduce the individual’s consumption and lower their risk of harms—both physical, psychological and social. Those assessed and identified with alcohol dependence, depending on the severity, can either be withdrawn using benzodiazepines by symptom-triggered therapy, or if mildly dependent with no withdrawal symptoms, can be prescribed an opioid receptor antagonist drug (nalmefene), with a psychosocial support programme to reduce the individual’s alcohol consumption.