{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.020202020202020204, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0025252525252525255, 'mean_word_length': 4.917910447761194, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Doctoring the drinkers.

‘Your GP is the first place to turn if you are concerned about your drinking’ — this was the concluding advice of a recent eight-page newspaper supplement devoted to ‘Britain's harmful relationship with alcohol’.1 Once regarded as a manifestation of moral turpitude, excessive drinking has been redefined as a medical condition and doctors have taken the place of evangelical ministers at the head of the modern temperance crusade. The fact that doctors come second only to publicans in terms of occupational risk of death from alcohol-induced cirrhosis of the liver does not seem to have diminished medical authority in this area.2

The ascendancy of GPs in dealing with alcohol problems is based on claims for the effectiveness of ‘brief interventions’ in general …