Awareness: Counseling by Phone Benefits Drinkers

Experience has shown that even a few short discussions with a health professional can help a problem drinker. But sometimes people who could benefit from the talks are unable to come in or reluctant to do so.

Maybe they do not have to, says a new study that found that counseling by telephone could be effective in curbing excessive drinking.

Writing in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, researchers suggested such counseling could be good for hard-to-reach patients. It also uses fewer resources than face-to-face meetings.

“Telephone counseling for alcohol problems,” the authors write, “could help overcome barriers that often hinder access to conventional alcohol treatment such as stigma, transportation, child care and scheduling conflicts.”