Alcohol use disorders - clinical management

NICE is developing three pieces of guidance relating to alcohol use disorders over the next two years. Each piece of guidance will focus on a different element of the care pathway, from the prevention and early identification of alcohol use disorders through to the clinical management of acute alcohol withdrawal and alcohol related liver disease and pancreatitis. The third piece of guidance will focus on the management of alcohol dependency and psychological interventions.

Because of the breadth of advice that will be covered and the short timescale in which NICE has to produce final recommendations, it will not be possible for one centre to develop all three pieces of guidance. Therefore, the topics have been allocated as follows:

Part 1 - Public health guidance

Alcohol use disorders in adults and young people: prevention and early identification (publication expected March 2010) - Centre for Public Health Excellence (CPHE) at NICE

Part 2 - Clinical guideline

Alcohol use disorders in adults and young people: clinical management (publication expected May 2010) - National Collaborating Centre for Chronic Conditions (NCC-CC)

Part 3 - Clinical guideline

Alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use (publication expected January 2011) - National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCC-MH)

NICE has set up a steering committee to oversee the production of these pieces of guidance.  This group, which will include development group members, staff from all three guidance-producing centres and senior NICE staff will identify and act on any gaps or overlaps across the different guidance topics in order to ensure that the final guidance produced is complementary and consistent.

As part of our normal process, NICE will set up independent guidance development groups, who will formulate recommendations. For clinical guidelines, members of the guideline development group (GDG) are multidisciplinary, comprising healthcare professionals, technical experts, and patients and/or carers. For public health programmes, members of the independent programme development group (PDG) are multidisciplinary, comprising healthcare professionals, technical experts, people working directly in public health, managers in the health service and other organisations. researchers and representatives from ‘lay' groups such as charities or patient/carer organisations.. As with all of our guidance, NICE ensures that members of the guidance development groups carry a breadth of experience and expertise across a range of settings and specialities so the development of recommendations reflects the broad nature of support required by people affected by alcohol dependence.

This page provides more detail on the Part 2 clinical guideline. Please follow the links above to view details of the other pieces of guidance.