Two questions. Yup, apparently GPs will be able to determine whether patients have a drink problem with two questions.
Two questions is all it could take to establish whether a person currently suffers from or is at risk of a drink problem, a study for GPs says.
‘How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?’ and ‘as a result of your drinking or drug use, did anything happen in the last year that you wish didn’t happen?’ are the two enquiries a GP could make to detect hidden alcohol abuse, it claims.
This is pure junk science – as is usual from the new puritans. Simply drinking more than six drinks in a session does not indicate a drink problem and regret could be anything – from the catastrophic to the minor, but it doesn’t mean that you have a drink problem. As is usual with these charlatans, they are confusing correlation with causation.
But it gets worse. Well, we knew it would.
GPs do not currently need to screen every patient for alcohol problems, the researchers say, but should they wish to do so many of the surveys available can be as long as ten questions.
No, GPs do not have to screen everyone because it’s none of their damned business unless a patient presents with health problems associated with excessive alcohol intake. And, indeed, as I don’t drink, I am unlikely to present with such problems. So any questions about how much I drink in a session and whether I have any regrets will be rejoined with a reminder that it is not relevant and therefore I decline to answer.
If I have six pints in six different pubs that’s six separate occasions, isn’t it?
Heh!
None of this is actually helping the GP patient relationship of course but there is every chance that the control freaks at the DoH will effectively make it compulsory by bribing GPs to pry into our drinking as well as our smoking habits every time that we attend a routine appointment. Trust, respect and the importance of the doctor patient relationship are not things that healthists understand.
Doesn’t it ever occur to any of the fools who come up with these ridiculous “health guidelines” that the more a habit becomes persecuted, and the more people come to realise that these questions are nothing to do with health and everything to do with gleaning information to give miserable busybodies an excuse to interfere still further into our lives, that patients will simply – err – lie? If for no other reason that it neatly sidesteps the inevitable, finger-wagging “advice” from a doctor who was probably still running around in nappies at a time when of his present patients had been out at work for 30 years.
Define ‘six’.
I have a very big whisky glass. Sometimes there aren’t six drinks in a bottle.
As for ‘has anything happened that I wished hadn’t happened’? Well, I wish the entire medical profession hadn’t lost its mind and that most of Westminster had not remembered to breathe. Does that count?
Define ‘six’.
Indeed. Here in Greece, spirits are nearly always free-poured. When I had a bar here, I would reckon to get twelve measures out of a 70cl bottle, and priced my drinks on that basis. That’s about 58ml per drink (and if it’s a local spirit, like Ouzo or Tsipouro, the measures tend to be much more generous, as it’s bought in bulk and decanted into 1.5l bottles), which is about double the English measure.
I Love this junk science, my ex husband could answer yes to both those questions but he wouldn’t because he is permanently in denial and knows how to answer the questions, HE JUST LIES.
In the last 36 years and he is 50 next month, he has drunk at least 4 or 5 times a week and thats just a rough average, he never drinks less than 6 pints at one time and for over 25 years it was always a lot more than 6. For the vast majority of our marriage it would be at least 12 pints and double whisky or double brandies. He has got in baths full of water fully clothed, passed out and got his head trapped between the bath and the toilet, has on multiple occasions vomited blood, he has defecated involuntarily. Threatened his family with knives and shot guns, punched walls and doors put a dog in the vets with a lacerated leg from smashing glass. He has smashed mobile phones and threatened to kill people. the worst incident was when he left the house with a loaded firearm and was arrested. But he would lie and deny so his GP would never get it out of him because he will never own up, his favourite phrase is “I don’t have a drink problem, I drink and drink and fall down, NO PROBLEM!” on Facebook he lists his hobbies as “Drinking, Drinking and drinking some more”.
So this is a complete waste of time as it relies on someone in the full throes of addiction TO TELL THE TRUTH and addicts never ever tell the truth, until they are in recovery.
Last time I was asked about my drinking by my doctor I said ” Oh 24 units every day. It’s a struggle some days frankly, as I’m not that thirsty, but you have to keep to the Government sanctioned recommendations don’t you?”
“No No!” says my Doctor, “It’s supposed to be 24 units a WEEK not a DAY!”
“Really?” says I, giving her a big wink.” Now can we get back to discussing the complaint I actually came to see you about?”
Err yes…Ok.
Since I reckon each bottle of wine is a drink then no, I have never, ever had six drinks or more at any one time. Why would I even contemplate such a heinous thing?
I quite often go a number of months without a drink, once when asked by a doctor how much I drank in a week, I was able to say that I hadn’t had a drink in four months. We then had a horse trading exercise were I agreed to say I drank two pints a week so he could have something in his records. Bloody pointless.
The propaganda merchants are just following the teachings of Adolf Hitler. He hated smoking. (Job done) He disapproved of drinking, and was nearly vegetarian. (Work in progress) The environment was not his subject, it was Himmler’s. (Note, the Green movement came out of Germany.) And of course, we have anti-Semitism, rife at the BBC.
Happy days will soon be here for Adolf’s successors.
And how many times in my 64 years have I heard a “problem drinker” being defined as “One who drinks more than his doctor”?
Smoke without fire?