The purpose of this study was to analyze whether general hospital inpatients with at-risk and heavy episodic drinking (ARHE) have a higher motivation to change drinking habits and a higher risk of developing alcohol dependence than individuals with at-risk drinking only (AR) or heavy episodic drinking only (HE).
At baseline, multinomial regressions revealed that individuals with ARHE had higher odds of taking action to change drinking habits than individuals with HE or AR . At follow-up, individuals with ARHE had higher odds of having alcohol dependence, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, compared with individuals with AR.
Inpatients with ARHE indicated greater readiness to change drinking habits than those with AR or HE, and they had higher odds for short-term development of alcohol dependence than those with AR. Brief alcohol intervention should include risk-specific information based on the risky drinking pattern.
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