Quoted from CBC article:

Two papers published in CMAJ Monday underscore the dangers that high-risk alcohol use can pose to people like Lynn. The first explains that high-risk drinking often goes unrecognized and offers guidelines for treating it. And the second shows that certain kinds of antidepressants can drive some alcohol users to drink more.

Quoted from CMAJ article:

Background: In Canada, low awareness of evidence-based interventions for the clinical management of alcohol use disorder exists among health care providers and people who could benefit from care. To address this gap, the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse convened a national committee to develop a guideline for the clinical management of high-risk drinking and alcohol use disorder.

[…]

Recommendations: The guideline includes 15 recommendations that cover screening, diagnosis, withdrawal management and ongoing treatment, including psychosocial treatment interventions, pharmacotherapies and community-based programs. The guideline committee identified a need to emphasize both underused interventions that may be beneficial and common prescribing and other practice patterns that are not evidence based and that may potentially worsen alcohol use outcomes.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Lynn’s initial daily intake of half a bottle of wine would make her a high-risk drinker, according to Canada’s guidelines on alcohol and health, updated in January.

They make 15 recommendations for family physicians, nurse practitioners and other health-care providers, ranging from how to ask about a patient’s alcohol use, to how to manage withdrawal symptoms and treat AUD over the long term.

Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria and a primary care physician, said we’re all on different trajectories when it comes to drinking, but few are asked about it by their family doctors, if they have one.

“There are lots of people who sort of drink to the point of impairment on a pretty regular basis who may not qualify for an alcohol use disorder,” said Naimi, who was not involved with the guidelines.

When Lynn went to her family physician about her depression, she was prescribed a common antidepressant that’s in a group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.

The second paper published in CMAJ on Monday uses a case study to illustrate how “SSRIs may not be effective for depressive symptoms in people with concurrent AUD, and may worsen alcohol use in some.”

The original article contains 873 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!