Effectiveness of screening and brief alcohol intervention in primary care (SIPS trial): pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial.
Kaner E., Bland M., Cassidy P. et al. BMJ: 2013, 346, e8501.

The primary care arm of the largest alcohol screening and brief intervention study yet conducted in Britain found that the proportion of risky drinkers fell just as much after the most minimal of screening and intervention methods as after more sophisticated and longer (but still brief) alternatives.

Summary
The SIPS project embraces three trials of brief interventions in different settings in England. This account focuses on the primary care trial; see these Findings analyses for the studies in emergency departments and probation offices.

First this account describes the common features of the three SIPS trials, based primarily on formal accounts of their methodology (1 2 3). Then results from primary care are described drawing almost entirely on the featured report and the relevant methodology report, but also occasionally on preliminary findings released by the SIPS project on its web site in the form of factsheets and conference presentations rather than peer-reviewed articles in academic journals. At the time of writing, the same sorts of documents are the primary sources for findings from the other two settings referred to in the Findings logo commentary to set the primary care findings in context. Later more scientifically formal accounts of these findings will be incorporated as they emerge, so the detailed findings and perhaps too the conclusions are subject to change.