GPs could quickly uncover which of their patients have drink problems by asking them just two simple questions, new research from the UK suggests.

According to doctors at the University of Leicester, alcohol problems often go undetected in primary care as GPs may not have time to screen all of their patients. Standard screening tests can simply be too time consuming to administer to every patient who attends for a consultation.

The researchers analysed 17 studies involving over 5,600 patients to assess the effectiveness of asking simple questions in order to detect drinking problems.

They found that asking just two simple questions correctly identified patients with drinking problems in 87% of cases, and correctly identified patients who did not have a drinking problem in almost 80% of cases.

The two questions were ‘how often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?' and ‘as a result of your drinking, did anything happen in the last year that you wish didn't happen?'

If the patient's answer to these questions gave cause for concern, GPs were recommended to carry out a longer screening test, such as AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), which is made up of 10 questions.

When a combination of the two short questions, along with a longer screening test were used, patients with alcohol problems were identified in 90% of all cases.

The researchers said that this means that all patients visiting their GP could potentially be screened for alcohol problems in a short amount of time, with a high degree of accuracy.

"There is great time pressure in primary care. GPs don't have the time to ask a long list of questions for every single patient. The shorter the survey, the more acceptable it is for GPs, but the greater the danger that it is inaccurate.

"Our work shows that asking just two questions to patients works modestly well, but they need to be followed up by a longer questionnaire in those who initially screen positive," noted lead researcher, Dr Alex Mitchell.

Details of these findings are published in the British Journal of General Practice.