* Explore by what mode screening and intervention can best be incorporated into clinical practice.

* Explore by what mode screening and intervention can best be incorporated into clinical practice, whether existing ed staff (e.g., nurses, physicians, physician extenders) can be used at least to an extent, and what other alternatives (eg compeer educators, interactive computerized methods, or volunteers) are available.

* Establish the cost--benefit ratios of various interventions, determine the mostly effective method of recovering outlays and explore how practitioners can be adequately reimbursed for any counseling they provide.

* Investigate by what means to overcome obstacles to screening and intervention, similar as difficulties with insurance coverage and unwillingness or inability of practitioners to perform these measures.

* Address for what reason screening and brief intervention skills can be incorporated in the practitioners' initial professional education.

* Assess screening and intervention for culturally diverse collections and non-English-speaking patients, who take the part of a significant proportion of ed patients but have not been a focus of existing studies.

CONCLUSIONS

ed visits provide health care practitioners with an important opportunity to guard their patients for alcohol puzzles and, if necessary, to initiate brief intervention. Research has demonstrated that screening and brief interventions are feasible and effective in the ed setting. However, to be prosperous in changing physicians' daily practices and decreasing the harmful concatenations of alcohol misuse, clinicians, researchers, and policy-makers still must address a variety of research questions and policy issues.