Addressing Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Resources From AHRQ

Addressing Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Resources From AHRQ Alcohol Awareness Month April is Alcohol Awareness Month—a time when many health organizations focus on the impact of, and evidence-based treatments for, alcohol use disorder. AHRQ offers research and tools to support clinicians and patients in understanding, identifying and treating unhealthy alcohol use. Explore the resources below to learn more: The EvidenceNOW: Managing Unhealthy Alcohol Use Initiative provides toolkits, implementation guides, workflow examples, quality improvement resources and patient education materials to support alcohol-related care in primary settings. These resources help practices integrate screening, brief intervention and treatment into routine care. https://www.ahrq.gov/evidencenow/projects/alcohol/index.html The AHRQ Integration Academy’s Unhealthy Alcohol Use Tools and Resources page includes more than 590 tools and materials designed to support primary care practices in managing unhealthy alcohol use. These resources encompass areas such as screening, brief intervention, referral to treatment, medication-assisted treatment, training, patient education and practice implementation, and can be filtered by use, topic, format and audience to suit diverse clinical needs. https://integrationacademy.ahrq.gov/products/substance-use-resources/environmental-scan/unhealthy-alcohol-use Interventions for Substance Use Disorders in Adolescents: A Systematic Review synthesizes research on behavioral, pharmacologic and combined interventions for adolescents, age 12 to 20, with problematic substance use or substance use disorder. It includes interventions aimed at achieving abstinence, reducing the quantity and frequency of use, improving functional outcomes and minimizing substance-related harms. https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/products/substance-use-disorders-adolescents/research Medicines To Treat Alcohol Use Disorder summarizes some of AHRQ’s research for adults who have or think they might have alcohol use disorder. This summary explains what alcohol use disorder is, outlines available medicines to treat it, reviews research on how well those medicines work, describes possible side effects and suggests topics to discuss with a doctor. https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/products/alcohol-misuse-drug-therapy/consumer https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/products/alcohol-misuse-drug-therapy/research