Prognosis of physicians treated for alcoholism and drug dependence

Data on 73 physicians are compared with data on 185 middle-class patients similarly treated for alcoholism or drug dependence in a hospital-based inpatient program. General patients were contacted on year after treatment and physicians, one to five years later. The prognosis was more favorable for physicians than for general patients. When the groups were selected for study on the basis of completion of inpatient treatment, availability at time of contact, and not having died, 83% of physicians and 62% of the general group were noted to have favorable outcomes. Close monitoring may account, in part, for the better prognosis for physicians.