Towards evidence based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Is emergency department based brief intervention worthwhile in adults presenting with alcohol related events?

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether emergency department (ED) based brief intervention is worthwhile in adults presenting with alcohol related events. A total of 590 papers were found using the reported search, of which eight represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results, and study weaknesses of these best papers are presented in table 1. The clinical bottom line is that brief psychotherapeutic intervention is worthwhile in adults who attend the emergency department after an alcohol related event.