Brief intervention, three decades on

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of brief intervention (BI) research to date and discusses future research needs as well as strategies for more widespread use of BI. Research has firmly established that significant reductions in drinking can be achieved by BI in a variety of health care settings. Despite convincing evidence, however, diffusion of BI in routine health care has been slow. Alcohol is a complex subject since it is often used moderately, without side-effects, and in a socially acceptable way. Although research on BI has accumulated rapidly during the last three decades, many important research challenges and development work remain before BI is widely implemented in routine health care.