How can I talk about addiction? A Top 2 questions selected by Non-General Practitioners healthcare professionals
Maxime PAUTRAT
Current guidelines encouraging SBIRT in primary care but do not specify how to deal with addictive disorders, even though patients expect them to do so. In addition, a previous study points out that nurses and physical therapists express a lack of training or legitimacy: they believe that patients will listen less to their advice than to that of a doctor.The aim of this study is to identify the best questions that would enable caregivers to feel confident about discussing addictive disorders with their patients.Cross-sectional quantitative study conducted among pharmacists, midwives, nurses, physical therapists and dentists, all recruited in their offices, multidisciplinary primary care health centers, or peer groups on social media, between January and May 2025. Fifteen questions selected from validated tests, translated and reformulated according to health literacy principles, were distributed via an online questionnaire (EVALandGo®). Each participant rated either their ease in asking these questions on a Likert scale (1 to 4). Participants were invited to choose their preferred question. A bonified means, incorporating the frequency of preferences, was used to establish the final ranking.A total of 160 caregivers responded and identified the following as the most appropriate questions: “Have you ever tried unsuccessfully to reduce or stop a consumption or a behavior? “ (bonified mean = 5,88), “Have you ever had an irresistible craving to consume or do something?” (5,15). The less popular question was "Do your relatives have a problem with your relationships?" (2,44).The test-retest reliability and the impact on the frequency of start talking about addiction in consultation by primary care professionnals helped by these questions have to be evaluate.By comparing the results of the same study conducted among primary care professionals, the top-2 best questions identified as most suitable to help primary care professionals address addictive disorders are common. Helped by these two questions to start talking about addiction, it could be interesting to assess the appropriation of the SBIRT procedure by primary care professionals.
