Physicians Are Part of the Problem

Excerpt

There are 9 000 000 alcoholics in the United States, and each individual alcoholic impinges on the lives of four other people. Drunken drivers kill 30 000 people each year. Alcoholism costs 15 billion dollars each year (1). Everyone, including physicians, has heard those statistics, but physicians in their practice are directly affected by alcoholism because it is a disease in itself and is the proximate cause of further illness. In a survey at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, one third of the patients on the medical service were alcoholics and one fifth of the hospitalizations were a direct result of