Brief intervention includes 'screening' or 'identification' whereby a person's drinking risk level is assessed using a validated tool such as the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).
It works in two ways: For alcohol misuse, the following elements have been identified as particularly important, and forming the acronym FRAMES:[10] Brief interventions are based on motivational interviewing techniques.
The technique involves acknowledgement that individuals who attend a counselling session, assessment or prevention program may be at different levels of readiness to change their alcohol consumption patterns, including: The technique attempts to increase a person's awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of patterns of alcohol consumption.
This technique acknowledges that people may come to a counseling session, an assessment, or a prevention program at different levels of readiness to change their drinking behavior.
For example, blood alcohol concentration level estimation training enables people to set limits for moderate goals that are unique to their gender, weight, and time spent drinking.
A range of systematic reviews published by Cochrane have described a small to medium effect size showing change in primarily alcohol use as a result of these interventions.
For example in a recent review of primary care patients including 69 studies, moderate quality evidence was found that brief interventions could reduce alcohol consumption in hazardous or harmful drinkers.