[Short intervention in patients with alcohol problems--counseling materials developed by the German Federal Medical Council and the German Federal Center for Health Education].

The German Medical Association and the Federal Centre for Health Education have developed counselling material to support physicians in their efforts at counselling and treating persons with alcohol problems. The material consists of a counselling manual for diagnosis and therapy in the framework of ambulatory primary health care and of a brochure for patients on the basis of evidence-based medicine. The counselling manual for general practitioners and the brochure for the patients are both designed around the same core ideas and make a distinction between low risk alcohol consumption and risky alcohol consumption, between alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction and contain supplementary information on the specific offers of the addiction-aid-system.