screening brief intervention and referral to treatment sbirt 12month outcomes of a randomized controlled clinical trial in a polish emergency department background a randomized controlled trial of screening brief intervention and referral to treatment sbirt among atrisk based on average number of drinks per week and drinks per drinking day and dependent drinkers was conducted in an emergency department ed among 446 patients 18 and older in sosnowiec polandmethods patients were recruited over a 23week period 400 pm to 1200 midnight and randomized to 1 of 3 conditions screenedonly n 147 assessed n 152 and intervention n 147 patients in the assessed and intervention conditions were blindly reassessed via a telephone interview at 3 months and all 3 groups were assessed at 12 months screenedonly 92 assessed 99 and intervention 87results no difference was found across the 3 conditions in atrisk drinking at 12 months as the primary outcome variable or in decrease in the number of drinks per drinking day with all 3 groups showing a significant reduction in both significant declines between baseline and 12 months in secondary outcomes of the raps4 number of drinking days per week and the maximum number of drinks on an occasion were seen only for the intervention condition and in negative consequences for both the assessment and intervention conditionsconclusions data suggest that improvements in drinking outcomes found in the assessment condition were not because of assessment reactivity with both the screened and intervention conditions demonstrating greater although nonsignificant improvement than the assessed condition only those in the intervention condition showed significant improvement in all outcome variables from baseline to 12month followup although group by time interaction effects were not found to be significant these findings suggest that declines in drinking measures for those receiving a brief intervention can be maintained at longterm followup