Only a small fraction of primary care adult patients with depression and severe alcohol use were screened for depression, a recent study found. Using cross-sectional data from primary care patients (n=2,894,906), researchers examined past-90-day alcohol use, depression screening rates, and symptom severity. They found:

• Within 30 days of routine, in-clinic alcohol use screening by medical assistants, only 2.4% of patients (n=68,686) also competed a PHQ-9 (screening rates).
• Nonwhite patients and those with higher comorbidity were more likely to report depression but less likely to be screened.
• Abstainers and moderate drinkers were less likely than hazardous drinkers to complete the PHQ-9 or to have significant depressive symptoms.
• The discrepancies between depression-screening rates and significant depressive symptoms suggest that screening for depression should be enhanced in these at-risk groups.