RT Book, Section A1 Mallin, Kimberly A1 Mallin, Robert A2 South-Paul, Jeannette E. A2 Matheny, Samuel C. A2 Lewis, Evelyn L. SR Print(0) ID 1173719136 T1 Substance Use Disorders T2 CURRENT Diagnosis & Treatment: Family Medicine, 5e YR 2020 FD 2020 PB McGraw Hill PP New York, NY SN 9781260134896 LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1173719136 RD 2024/03/29 AB The prevalence of alcohol and drug disorders in primary care outpatients is between 23% and 37%. Almost one-third of US adults meet the criteria for a form of alcohol use disorder during some point in their lives. The cost to society of these disorders is staggering. Each year in the United States, substance use disorders (SUDs) are associated with over 600,000 deaths and costs of approximately $250 billion. Of these deaths, 480,000 may be attributed to tobacco and 100,000 to alcohol. In 2016, drug overdoses alone accounted for 63,000 deaths, with >42,000 deaths due to opioids. The high prevalence of these disorders in primary care outpatients suggests that family physicians are confronted with these problems daily. These disorders rarely present overtly but are often found in conjunction with commonly seen illnesses such as hypertension, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and liver problems. The pediatric population is another area where diagnostic clues may be subtly present, with >10% of US children living with a least one parent with alcohol or drug problems. Patients in denial about the connection between their substance use and the consequences caused by it frequently minimize the amount of their use, and they rarely seek assistance for their substance use problem. One study exploring the care provided for patients with alcohol dependence found that only 11% of patients received recommended care in the primary care setting. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) published a physician’s guide, Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much (http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/guide) to help improve this discrepancy of care. Various tools are available to help integrate management of patients with SUDs into primary care offices, including SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment) training (http://www.sbirteducation.com).