Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111239

Thomas F. Babor, PhD, MPH and Bonnie G. McRee, MPH. Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-6325, 860-679-5482, babor@nso.uchc.edu

This session describes translational research on screening and brief interventions (SBI) for alcohol and other drug misuse. Beginning in the 1980's, there have been concerted efforts to provide an evidence base for alcohol SBI in primary health care. With the development of reliable and accurate screening tests for alcohol, numerous clinical trials demonstrated the efficacy and cost effectiveness of SBI in primary care, emergency departments and trauma centers. Based on the positive evidence, implementation research was begun in the 1990's, followed by a national demonstration program initiated in 2004. This session brings together five participants in the SBIRT (screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment) national demonstration program. The first paper, Thomas Babor describes the science base for a public health approach to screening and brief intervention, using examples from instrument development studies and clinical trials to illustrate the cumulative evidence for SBIRT alcohol and drug initiatives in health care settings. In the second paper, Dennis Kelso describes the implementation of alcohol and drug screening programs in San Diego County, where over 500,000 screenings will be conducted in the next few years. In the third paper, Chris Dunn describes the evidence for health behavior change using motivational interviewing techniques, and the application of these techniques to conduct brief interventions in trauma centers in Seattle, Washington. The fourth session describes the implementation of a comprehensive SBIRT program in hospital settings in Chicago, IL. In the final session, Jeremy Bray describes the evaluation plan and initial findings from the SBIRT national evaluation.

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