NICE but Needy: English guidance of managing alcohol dependence is not backed up by government alcohol policy

The English National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline in the year 2011 on alcohol-use disorders to improve treatment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for alcohol dependence and harmful use (NICE, 2011). Clinical guidance on these topics already exists in Scotland (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, 2003). The NICE guidance has been developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) for use in primary, secondary, community and social care. It is the third part of a series of NICE publications on managing the harms associated with alcohol misuse. The other documents in the series are a public health guideline on alcohol problems (NICE, 2010), and clinical guidance on managing alcohol-use disorders which concentrates on alcohol-related problems seen in the acute general hospital (National Clinical Guidelines Centre, 2010).