Analyzing the costs and benefits of brief intervention.

The Trial for Early Alcohol Treatment, Project TrEAT, was a randomized controlled trial of screening and brief intervention in primary care clinics. One of the few such trials to be analyzed in terms of cost-effectiveness, Project TrEAT was examined from two perspectives. The analysis from the perspective of medical care providers focused on clinic and hospital costs, contrasting the benefits that directly reduced medical expenditures with the costs to providers. The analysis from the societal perspective took all of the intervention's costs and benefits into account. Both components of this study revealed that Project TrEAT led to a reduction in alcohol consumption by high-risk drinkers and a corresponding reduction in medical and societal costs. Overall, this study supported the cost-effectiveness of Project TrEAT, concluding that its costs were outweighed by its benefits.