One hundred fifty consecutive, first-visit, general medical patients were simply and inexpensively screened by questionnaire, personal inquiry, and physical examination for drug and alcohol abuse. Seventeen (11.3%) currently used psychoactive drugs, excluding alcohol, and ten (6.7%) used drugs or alcohol on a daily basis to the point that the patient considered it an abuse problem. The majority of the drug and alcohol users recognized their problem on a short questionnaire that was part of a medical intake form. Almost all of the recognized abusers of drugs or alcohol subsequently entered treatment of their problem.
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Forest S. Tennant (1979) studied this question.