Identificazione precoce e intervento breve nei confronti del bere a rischio. Cosa insegnare ai futuri medici.

Aim of this work is to promote the introduction of the alcohology and the “Clinical guidelines for the identification of hazardous and harmful consumption of alcohol and brief intervention” study in Medicine and Surgery degree course, to learn the execution of brief interventions on the population at risk. The authors report a summary of guidelines and the main tools used for the identification of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption and for the execution of the brief intervention. Moreover, they reported the results of a survey on medical students’ knowledge and drinking habits. It highlighted the lack in the field of knowledge of alcohology, a high frequency of “occasional drinkers” (34.7%) and “regular drinkers” (25.9%) among the students of the fifth year of the Medicine and Surgery degree course of the Catania University. Intensified education concerning healthy lifestyle coping with consumption of alcohol during medical school could help improve these habits in healthcare professionals and their patients.