atrisk and heavy episodic drinking motivation to change and the development of alcohol dependence among men objective the purpose of this study was to analyze whether general hospital inpatients with atrisk and heavy episodic drinking arhe have a higher motivation to change drinking habits and a higher risk of developing alcohol dependence than individuals with atrisk drinking only ar or heavy episodic drinking only hemethod a proactively recruited sample of 425 male general hospital inpatients with ar he or arhe was used men with current alcohol dependence or abuse were excluded participants were followed up 12 months laterresults at baseline multinomial regressions revealed that individuals with arhe had higher odds of taking action to change drinking habits than individuals with he odds ratio or 229 95 confidence interval ci 121434 or ar or 211 ci 115386 at followup individuals with arhe had higher odds of having alcohol dependence as defined by the diagnostic and statistic manual of mental disorders fourth edition or 473 ci 1012220 compared with individuals with arconclusions inpatients with arhe indicated greater readiness to change drinking habits than those with ar or he and they had higher odds for shortterm development of alcohol dependence than those with ar brief alcohol intervention should include riskspecific information based on the risky drinking pattern