Abstract
Depression, anxiety, and insomnia are common symptoms evaluated in primary care practice that may be associated with substance use disorders or high‐risk substance use. Our objective was to examine the frequency of documentation of alcohol use as a component of the assessment of patients diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or insomnia and to examine the effect of patient gender on the rates of documentation of alcohol use. Records of 257 patients were reviewed; patients’ average age was 43; 79.8% were female; and 54% were smokers. Thirty‐six percent of patients had current alcohol use documented as a component of the assessment; women were half as likely as men to have their use documented. In a multivariate analysis, patient age (OR, 2.1; CI 1.2 to 3.5) and a history of substance abuse (OR, 2.5; CI, 1.4 to 4.9), not patient or physician gender, were associated with increased likelihood of documentation of alcohol use during the assessment of psychiatric symptoms.
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