NICE harmful drinking and alcohol dependence (CG115): 2013 Evidence Update

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) have released an evidence update to its 2011 guidance alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use (CG 115).

Download the Alcohol use disorders: harmful drinking and alcohol dependence Evidence Update - January 2013 (pdf)

The update includes the latest evidence relating to the use of drugs in supporting alcohol treatment and other findings including: 

Principles of care: 

• Evidence suggests that involving the family in treatment is beneficial to responding to the individual needs of family members.

Interventions for alcohol misuse:

• Motivation enhancement therapy during detoxification may help to initiate and maintain people in aftercare inpatient treatment programmes compared with treatment as usual plus a peer delivered twelve-step facilitation intervention.
• Telephone monitoring and counselling may produce better alcohol use outcomes for relapse prevention than telephone counselling and ‘treatment as usual’.
• Using symptom-triggered benzodiazepines in an outpatient setting appears no more effective in reducing alcohol withdrawal symptoms than a fixed dosage regimen, and concerns remain about the safety of high dosage and potential for benzodiazepine misuse in largely unsupervised settings.
• The cost of treatment for alcohol dependent people after withdrawal may be offset by a reduction in social costs.

NICE alcohol commissioning guidance is available to support attainment of the alcohol quality standard which builds on:

• NICE CG115 - alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use
• NICE PH24 - alcohol-use disorders - preventing harmful drinking
• NICE CG 100 - alcohol-use disorders: physical complications
• Supporting resources including alcohol pathways and further tools.

See the Alcohol Learning Centre, Alcohol Research UK, NHS Evidence alcohol page or the Findings Bank for further resources and information.