Mar 11, 2019 3 min read

Upcoming visits to your doctor might include a conversation about how much you drink.

The United States Preventative Services Task Force has recommended that adults 18 and older, including pregnant women, be screened by their primary care providers for unhealthy alcohol use.

“The task force is calling on clinicians to screen all adults and provide counseling to those who drink beyond recommended limits,” said USPSTF member Dr. Carol Mangione in a news release.

The task force considers unhealthy alcohol use as drinking beyond recommended limits: no more than four drinks a day or more than 14 drinks per week for men, and no more than three drinks a day and more than seven drinks per week for women. Any alcohol use in pregnancy is considered unhealthy.

“I think it’s always appropriate to try to screen,” said Dr. Thomas Corkery, a primary care physician and chief medical officer at Canonsburg Hospital.

Corkery noted several ways in which excessive alcohol consumption can lead to injury, illness and death – including automobile accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, high blood pressure, strokes and increased risk of cancers, including breast, colon and throat cancer.

Unhealthy alcohol use is increasing in the United States. An estimated 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death, according to the task force.

Screening for unhealthy alcohol use requires primary care providers to ask questions about how often patients drink and other drinking patterns. If a provider finds an adult is drinking excessively, the task force recommends he or she provide brief behavioral counseling interventions, or refer the patient for more extensive treatment.

But it’s not always easy.

“Unfortunately, a lot of patients don’t come clean about alcohol use. Many times, people aren’t honest with their physicians,” said Corkery. “People tend to minimize their alcohol use even when you screen for it.”

Addressing alcohol abuse is also difficult because drinking – unlike tobacco use and drug use – is socially acceptable, Corkery pointed out.

“It’s pretty common for people to say, ‘Hey, let’s go have a drink after work.’ You’ll find a lot of people who drink purely out of habit. If things are going poorly, it’s a way to cope. If things are going well, it’s a way to celebrate,” said Corkery. “If you question if you’re drinking too much, then you’re probably drinking too much.”

And, people have different ideas about what they consider alcohol abuse.

Isn’t binge drinking only on weekends, for example, OK?

“It’s still alcohol abuse,” said Corkery.