Brief intervention

If necessary, advice to reduce alcohol consumption should be recommended or counselling should be initiated via the addiction outpatient clinic of the psychiatric hospital. Brief interventions can be carried out by a physician as well as by members of other professional groups (physician's assistant, nurse, etc.). A reduction in alcohol consumption (frequency, quantity, binge drinking) as well as harm-reducing effects (extent of negative consequences of continued excessive use, for example number of days in inpatient treatment or emergency admissions) can be demonstrated up to 48 months after implementation of a brief intervention.

Algorithm

With the help of the path on the right side you can find out whether you can make use of the counselling services of the prevention outpatient clinic.

Hints on how to conduct a conversation

Patients with addictive disorders tend to trivialise or deny questions about their substance use. When talking about their addictive behaviour, they often react with resistance. For the medical and nursing staff, conversations with affected patients about addictive substance use are therefore rarely purposeful and are often experienced as frustrating.

In order to successfully counter the characteristics of the conversation described above, the method of "motivational interviewing" (Miller, Rollnick, 2005) has proven to be particularly helpful in the treatment of addicts. Motivational interviewing is based on the following basic principles:

Empathy: non-judgmental, empathetic understanding, active listening.
Avoiding evidence - avoiding confrontation
Supporting the patient's self-disclosure - asking open questions
Promote self-efficacy - convey confidence and trust in the patient's ability to solve their own problems. Avoid acting as an "expert"
Point out contradiction: Make patients aware of contradictions between personal life goals and consequences of the cosmos
Accepting contradictions: Accepting existing ambivalences, acknowledging the patient's own responsibility
Giving feedback - expressing praise and confirmation for successes achieved.