The new findings in the Journal of Family Practice show health care providers tend to avoid asking their patients about excessive alcohol use. University of Iowa researchers say there are many reasons why doctors avoid those tough questions:

"Physicians, when asked that very question, say they’re not trained to recognize alcohol problems, so they don’t bring it up because they don’t see it," says Stephan Arndt, M.D., UI Behavioral Health specialist.

It’s believed if doctors would talk more with patients about their alcohol use, they could have a significant impact on reducing potential abusive behavior: "There has been more recognition that brief interventions help and there have been changes in the social attitudes toward this, so it would be nice to say, in a year or two, gosh, it’s gotten better," says Arndt.

Arndt hopes to find out if that’s true. He plans to repeat the study to see if doctors and patients are talking more about alcohol.