2020 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 238-245
There is a large treatment gap (95.4%) of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in Japan and it needs to be addressed. However, many psychiatrists in Japan feel inadequate regarding AUD treatment. At our hospital, we have implemented initial treatment of AUD as part of a liaison service and one-stop-service model practice in general hospitals. A favorable outcome has been achieved. In 2015, among 181 AUD patients (93% with alcohol dependence), 36.5% stopped drinking, 22.1% reduced their consumption, 13.3% continued problem drinking, and 28.1% were unknown. We then searched the negative feelings (1-5 of the Likert scale) of the AUD patients among the health care professionals (doctors and rehabilitation-specialists) at our hospital using questionnaires. The average score decreased from 3.25 to 2.37 (p=0.01) after this implementation. Thus we discuss these results as well as some practical tips for AUD initial treatment in Japanese general hospitals.
