Trauma and Alcohol

This chapter discusses traumatic injury and alcohol abuse. Trauma can be viewed as a recurrent illness with risk factors that can predict future injuries, and alcohol abuse is a significant risk factor. Patients in hospitals and emergency rooms with injuries should be screened for alcohol problems. Those who are found to have an alcohol problem can be accessed for disease severity and willingness to change. Interventions directed at changing the course of the patient's alcohol problem may be effective in guiding these patients into changing their behavior, obtaining appropriate treatment for their drug or alcohol problem, reducing the chance of future injuries and health care utilization, and ultimately improving clinical outcomes and social functioning. Further research is needed to identify methods to accomplish these tasks that are simple and practical and that can be incorporated to the operations of the average emergency department, inpatient services of small hospitals, or the trauma service of large, tertiary-care hospitals. In most societies traumatic injury is a leading cause of preventable death and disability. Traditionally, traumatic injuries have been referred to as "accidents," which suggests that they are isolated events, occurring randomly and unpredictably among the population.