[The alcoholic patient in rehabilitation]

Alcoholics are in general not the ideal candidates for a cardiac rehabilitation programme, mainly because the rehabilitation demands a high degree of cooperation and motivation by the patients to be successful. Therefore, only stable patients with some self-esteem and strong enough to withstand the temptation of the available alcohol, patients without symptoms and signs of neuro-psychiatric deficit and with a relative intact social network, have a chance to benefit from the therapy which is based mainly on a physical training programme beside the usual medical care, but without the possibility of intensive care.