[Opinion and attitude of physicians regarding organization and participation on a multidisciplinary alcoholism unit]

The inaccuracy of physicians in the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment referral of alcoholic patients has prompted us to set a Multidisciplinary Alcohol Unit (Unit). Its aims are to set coordinated and individualized treatment proposals and to train medical staff in dealing with alcohol problems. After six months of activity we performed an investigation by all physicians who delt with the Unit including residents and practitioners. We sent 78 questionnaires investigating training in alcohol problems, addictive diseases and psycho-social medicine, subjective usefulness of the Unit for the patient as well as for the medical staff, subjective effectiveness of treatments for alcoholics and reasons for patients' referral. 87% of the physicians completed the questionnaire. According to groups, 12 to 20% of the physicians reported that their training in addictive problems was sufficient. Half of practitioners and 20% of hospital residents reported that their training in psychosocial medicine was satisfactory. All the physicians who answered the questionnaire considered the Unit to be usefull for themselves, mainly because of the Unit's teaching abilities and 89% considered the Unit useful for the patients. In term of effectiveness, alcoholism treatment is percieved by residents to be more efficient when mediated by a specialized unit rather than by practitioners or by themselves. Practitioners percieved that the treatment is more efficient when handled by themselves or by a specialized social unit. Principal reasons to seek help from the Unit were a main diagnosis of alcohol-related disease, the need to complete the psycho-social evaluation and subjective insufficient skills in the field. In conclusion the Unit seems to meet the need of medical doctors despite the limited number of referred cases and is said to be usefull for their patients as well as for themselves.