Research into Brief Interventions for Excessive Alcohol Consumers and Cigarette Smokers in Australia

Over the past five years there has been a strong move toward the development, evaluation and implementation of brief interventions for smokers and excessive drinkers. In this article we review some of the issues related to brief interventions which include: the range of the methods used, the channels and settings of their delivery, the evidence available for their effectiveness, and some recent research priority-setting exercises. We conclude with likely further directions.