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White Mountain Community Health Center screens every primary care patient annually for alcohol use disorder with a standardized set of questions that prompt a conversation with their provider. (STEVEN RHOCHE PHOTO)

CONWAY — When we talk about substance abuse, most people immediately think of opioids. There’s been a lot of good work to bring attention and solutions to this problem, and it’s helped — opioid deaths in New Hampshire have decreased during the pandemic, in marked contrast with most of the country. But did you know that even more people die of alcohol-related causes every year? Alcohol is at the root of about 95,000 annual deaths in the United States, compared with about 75,000 opioid deaths in 2020.

Every year, the clinical team at White Mountain Community Health Center analyzes our patient health data to look for trends to address. The continual increase in patients with alcohol use disorder is a growing concern. The percentage of primary care patients with a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder rose about 40 percent from 2019 to 2021. This isn’t just a pandemic phenomenon; the increase from 2015 to 2019 was even higher.

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