Alcohol Education Inventory-Revised: what every mental health professional should know about alcohol.

In 1995, Miller and C'de Baca created a 50-item measure, the Alcohol Education Inventory (AEI), to assess mental health professionals' basic knowledge of alcohol and alcohol problems. The purpose of this study was to update the AEI based on advances in the field since its publication. The AEI-Revised (AEI-R) consists of 13 of the original AEI items, 30 items that were revised and updated, and 7 new items. The AEI-R was administered to 90 mental health trainees with percentage correct ranging from 60% (psychology postdoctoral fellows) to 70% (psychiatry residents). The percent correct is very similar to that found on the original AEI (64%-70%). Survey results suggest that alcohol-related knowledge by mental health professionals in general training is less than adequate. The AEI-R may be useful as a tool to assess basic knowledge of alcohol among mental health professionals.