This fact sheet suggests a typical flow of questions during a conversational initial assessment of a patient’s alcohol use.

This template can be downloaded and adapted for your charting, or you can use it as a guide to remind you of important topics to cover during the initial interview.

This template can be downloaded and adapted for your charting, or you can use it as a guide to remind you of important topics to cover during the initial interview.

When family members need support from others who are also struggling with a loved one’s substance use issues, referring them to Al-Alon or Alateen is a great option.

The goal of motivational interviewing is to enhance your patient’s motivation to decrease their alcohol intake. 

A key ingredient of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for alcohol use disorder is discussing automatic negative thoughts that may trigger drinking

An intervention is a planned meeting with the patient, the family, and usually an addiction professional (an interventionist). 

Including family meetings in your treatment of alcohol-using patients (or any psychiatric patients, for that matter) can help you better understand treatment challenges and therefore help achieve long-term sobriety. 

Regardless of what kind of treatment you choose for your patient, it’s important to remind yourself of the key feature of any successful treatment—a good treatment alliance.