Four main points:

• The patients accepted willingly this screening leaf easily printed.
• Without using it, many diagnosis were missed.
• Any doctor may verify by using it for alternate periods.
• Twelve questions help discerning with whom to talk about drinking.

Among gastroenterological hospital outpatients, the greater the number of past diagnoses, the more additional disclosure was provided by the questionnaire.

The questionnaire also stimulated memory, as one patient out of three wrote unsolicited answers.
The questionnaire helped to identify something true among those looking like false patients; and truer facts in the true ones.

In GP's waiting rooms, most patients appeared surprised but only 10% refused the questionnaire. In hospital, only one out of 123 refused.
People accept written questions that they would consider insulting if spoken. Finally, they actively cooperate to their diagnosis. The deaf were the greatest beneficiaries.

The questionnaire also provides several opportunities for having a talk concerning alcohol.
There is no question about alcohol consumption but twelve questions frequently elicited positive answers from persons impaired by alcohol: sleep, tranquilizers, tiredness, anxiety, poor memory, depression, suicidal ideas, hypertension, gout, cramps, tremor and after-effects of accidents. These questions are marked by … before the ?
If so, the physician may remember the first question of the CAGE questionnaire:
Have you ever felt you should cut down your drinking? Or perhaps Have you ever felt we might consider together the place of alcohol in your life? Nice question to start a talk after the physical examination.

In the case of treated alcohol dependence, the twelve questions mentioned above may be used as criteria of recovery.

Such a questionnaire is not suitable for epidemiology. It looks more at symptoms than diseases. The questions are voluntarily vague. They were selected according to the seriousness of omissions or of iatrogenic risks. Epidemiology would be better served by sample surveys than by daily registration.

When the patient enters the consulting room, the physician leaves the questionnaire aside and starts as usual. Before the physical examination, the answers are discussed rapidly because they are not yes or no, but only yes.
If the answer is wrong, the physician crosses the tick out.
If the answer brings something new, he traces a circle around it.
The time for routine interviewing is decreased but the whole duration is increased slightly to clarify dubious points and to take advantage of the disclosures.

The websurfers are free to print questionnaires for themselves and for others and to bring a filled copy to their doctor.

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