Objective: To evaluate attitudes of family medicine residents to patients with alcohol-related problems. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Participants: Family medicine residents registered in the Family Medicine Residency Program in Lisbon. Methods: Attitudes to patients with alcohol-related problems were assessed using the Short Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire. Associations were tested between questionnaire scores, gender and postgraduate training year. Results: One hundred and ninety five residents meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria answered the questionnaire. Residents were on average 29.2 years old, and 74.4% were female. Residents felt secure in working with at-risk drinkers (88.7% scored above the Role Security scale midpoint) but reported lower levels of therapeutic commitment (57.9% scored above the scale midpoint). Although residents showed on average positive attitudes, they considered working with patients with alcohol-related problems an unpleasant task. Male and female residents reported similar attitudes towards these patients in all questionnaire domains (all p>0.05), and their attitudes remained unchanged throughout training (all p>0.05). Conclusions: Residency training does not change residents' attitudes to patients with excessive alcohol consumption. Inclusion of alcohol specific training modules into the residency program that take residents' attitudes into account may help to improve residents' willingness to counsel problem drinkers to reduce alcohol consumption. termed hazardous and harmful drinking. They may affect up to 30% of patients on a family physician's adult patient list, while alcohol dependency affects only 2% to 5%. 3-6 Family physicians occupy a strategic position in the primary care structure, which allows them to combat and reduce alcohol consumption. They recognize alcohol as an important risk factor and have at their disposal highly cost-effective techniques to address alcohol-related problems. 7-9 Collectively known as alcohol screening and motivational-based brief interventions, these techniques are among the most effective in a physician's therapeutic arsenal (Number Needed to Treat=8). 10-11 However, a significant number of family physicians remain unwilling to integrate these countermeasures in routine clinical practice, despite considerable efforts deployed to this end. 10,12-14 When asked about this contradiction, family physicians mention lack of training as an important barrier estudosoriginais
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