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Biomedical subjects

H N Barnes

Publications and source records attributed to H N Barnes.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Brief interventions with substance-abusing patients.

Brief interventions to change alcohol use have proven effective in different primary care settings. Current data show decreases in consumption as well as a decreased utilization of some health resources and decreased mortality. The process of changing drinking or substance abuse behavior requires a series of predictable steps. The key to changing behavior is ambivalence about current behavior. Understanding the stages of behavioral change and assessing the patient's readiness to change are important for effective interventions. Brief interventions include giving the patient feedback about a behavior, clearly recommending a change in behavior, presenting options to achieve this change, checking and responding to the patient's reaction, and providing follow-up care. Effective interventions help develop the patient's sense of motivation and self-efficacy for behavioral change. In approaching a patient with a substance abuse problem, using techniques of motivational enhancement is more effective than a confrontational approach.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1993

Evaluation of a faculty development program in substance abuse education.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a faculty development program was effective in increasing clinical skills and the amount of substance abuse teaching of individual general medical faculty. DESIGN: Program participants were evaluated with a structured assessment before and several months after participating in a faculty development program in substance abuse education. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty percent were general internal medicine faculty, who on average devoted 25% of their time to teaching. The remainder of the participants were family medicine, psychiatry, or other internal medicine faculty and nonphysician teachers. INTERVENTION: The participants attended a learner-centered, largely experiential faculty development program in substance abuse education to improve their clinical and teaching skills relevant to substance abuse among patients in the general medical setting. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Eighty-six percent of the participants completed the evaluation. The participants reported increased confidence in their clinical skills in recognizing substance abuse, presenting the problem to the patient, and referring the patient for treatment. The participants also reported improved attitudes toward patients and increased teaching about the management of the primary problem of substance abuse, but not at the expense of teaching about medical complications. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically oriented, interactive faculty development courses in substance abuse education can contribute to increased confidence in clinical skills in substance abuse as well as teaching about substance abuse.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1987

Residents' attitudes, knowledge, and behavior regarding diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism.

Few studies have addressed the variables that affect physicians' practice behavior in treating alcoholism. In the study reported here, the authors hypothesized that alcohol-related training and experience would influence practice behavior more significantly than attitudes or knowledge. In order to assess the most important predictors of practice behavior, the authors conducted a survey of 163 junior and senior medical residents at five training hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Of these residents, 123 responded (75 percent). Negative attitudes toward alcoholics and knowledge of alcoholism were not significantly related to the residents' estimates of the prevalence of alcoholism among their patients, to their rate of treating alcoholic patients, or to their rate of referring patients for alcoholism therapy. There was a significant relationship between having supervised clinical experience in alcoholism and these three behaviors. These results are consistent with the authors' hypothesis that changing physicians' practice in treating alcoholics may be best achieved by providing relevant clinical experience in alcoholism.

Adult↗