Objectives: To find out what primary care doctors know about consumers of excessive alcohol and related problems.Methods: An observational, descriptive and crossover study was designed to cover all the primary care doctors in our region (486 doctors, excluding paediatricians). A closed, anonymous and self-administered questionnaire, divided into two sections, was disegned: a) social, person and work details (8 items), and b) a questionnaire concerning their understanding draw up by a committe of experts after a bibliographic review and a pilot study (n = 60). This latter had 23 questions, divided into 5 types of knowledge: type 1, “recruitment, prevention and health promotion”; type 2, “measuring alcohol consumption”; type 3, “biochemical markers and qualitative tests”; type 4, “identification”; and type 5, “management and complications”. The measurements and interventions consisted of a descriptive analysis and simple correlations.Results: 227 valid questionnaires were returned (47.7% rate of participation). a) social, personal and work details: 67.6% were men between 1976 and 1985. 55.3% worked in a mixed health centre, 54.4% with tenure. 61.4% worked in communities of under 20,000 inhabitants, with a load of over 40 patients per day (46.6%), and b) questionnaire concerning of the excessive consumption of alcohol and problems arising from this. The differentiation between excess drinkers and at-risk drinkers was insufficient.Conclusions: It was found that there was good understanding of excessive consumption of alcohol and its related problems.