Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are among the mental disorders with the lowest treatment rate. In high income countries 10 % or less of the people fulfilling the diagnostic criteria receive treatment [1] (Europe), [2] (Europe), [3] (USA). Given that alcohol is one of the most important risk factors for morbidity and mortality in Europe [4] and AUDs account for significant shares of disease burden in Europe [5], increasing treatment engagement should be a public health priority [6]. Rehm and colleagues recently demonstrated that increasing the treatment coverage to 40 % would lead to a reduction of up to 10 % in alcohol-attributable mortality in the EU within the first year alone [5]. One way to increase treatment rates is to increase patients’ treatment seeking. It is therefore crucial to know why patients do not seek treatment. The present study examined patients’ self-reported reasons for not seeking treatment and their association with AUDs severity. Past research concentrated on three explanations [7]:Patients fear stigmatizationPatients do not believe treatment is effective/helpful or do not know about treatment optionsPatients deny having a problem with their alcohol use or want to cope with it on their own.
