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Alcohol and smoking history on admission to a psychiatric hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

B. T. Farid*
Affiliation:
Drury House, 50 Leicester Road, Narborough, Leicester LE9 5DF
R. H. Bird
Affiliation:
Drury House, 50 Leicester Road, Narborough, Leicester LE9 5DF
B. Naik
Affiliation:
Glenfrith Hospital, Groby Road, Leicester LE3 9QF
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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This is a retrospective study of 173 consecutive admissions to a general psychiatric hospital. The aim was to establish the frequency and adequacy with which alcohol and tobacco use were recorded. Regarding alcohol, in 41% of the notes there was no adequate quantitative history, in 29.5% there was a descriptive mention and in 29.5% no history was recorded. Female patients were less likely to have an alcohol history taken than male patients. With tobacco, in 64% of the notes there was an adequate quantitative history, in 6.4% there was a descriptive comment and in 28.9% no history was recorded. It is to be stressed to all doctors that an assessment of alcohol and tobacco use should be made for every patient, whatever their age, gender or ethnic origin.

Type
Original papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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