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Aims: To assess perceptions on alcohol misuse and addiction among medical students prior to in-depth training in order to determine areas of the curriculum that need to be reshaped or focused on., Methods: A questionnaire assessment of first- and second-year medical students' perceptions of alcohol misuse., Results: Students had some misconceptions about current alcohol misuse rates, including a perception that addiction is common among health professionals, that the under-25s had the fastest increasing rate of alcohol addiction and that British women had a more rapidly increasing rate of alcohol addiction than British men., Conclusion: Encouragingly, students overwhelmingly felt that alcohol addiction was something to which they could make a difference. It highlights that early education about alcohol misuse is important in terms of teaching students how to recognize hazardous and harmful drinkers and how to manage them.

Aims: This study was aimed to review and rewrite the undergraduate curriculum on alcohol use disorders, implement the changes and assess for any early evidence of an improvement in knowledge. Methods: A three-stage process was used to review the old curriculum and a new one was designed around the five undergraduate years. Students' opinions were sought about the acceptability of the new curriculum using a questionnaire, to which 93 responded and 70 volunteers were objectively assessed using an examination based on questions from the text of the Medical Students' Handbook on Alcohol and Health. Results: There was no evidence of any improvement in the students' knowledge using the old curriculum. After teaching with the new curriculum, examination scores significantly increased (P < 0.0001). There was no difference between the sexes. The new curriculum was assessed as acceptable to the students. Conclusion: This new curriculum reflects the need for a new teaching method and not only offers improved teaching, but also produces a generation of doctors equipped to identify alcohol-related problems and to deliver brief interventions, helping to reduce the projected consequences of alcohol abuse and the associated burden on the health service. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]