Two questions is all it could take to establish whether a person currently suffers from or is at risk of a drink problem, a study for GPs says.
'How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?' and 'as a result of your drinking or drug use, did anything happen in the last year that you wish didn't happen?' are the two enquiries a GP could make to detect hidden alcohol abuse, it claims.
Scientists from the University of Leicester, led by consultant in psycho-oncology Alex Mitchell, looked at 17 previous alcohol studies spanning 5,646 people to see whether simple preliminary screening using one or two questions could provide an accurate foundation for intervention.
The team found that the "optimal approach appears to be two questions" followed by a possible four more.
If this was completed then it "achieved an overall accuracy of 90.9 per cent and required only 3.3 questions per attendee."