Integrating Pharmacotherapy Into SBIRT for Alcohol Use Disorder in Family Medicine

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been underutilized in primary care. Insufficient physician training on AUD results in low prescribing rates of effective pharmacotherapy. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a three-part interactive seminar on SBIRT and medication management of AUD for family medicine resident physicians. METHODS: All family physician and pharmacy residents affiliated with a family medicine residency program were invited to participate in an AUD workshop (intervention). We administered confidence (five questions) and knowledge (11 questions) surveys before intervention (pre), immediately after intervention (post), and 3 months after intervention (post-post). We performed generalized regression to assess mean changes in confidence and knowledge (% correct) across time. RESULTS: Thirty-one out of 32 residents participated in the pre-, 29 responded in the post-, and 10 completed the post-postsurvey. Confidence statistically improved from pre- to postsurvey and from pre- to post-postsurvey for all five confidence questions (P<0.01). Knowledge statistically improved from pre- to postsurvey in eight out of 11 knowledge questions (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This highly interactive curriculum resulted in statistically significant improvements in resident confidence and knowledge of SBIRT and medication management of AUD. Interactive teaching techniques may improve family medicine residents' confidence and knowledge of SBIRT and management of AUD.