[Alcohol and drug addiction in the work place]

Abstract

Alcohol and drug addiction in the work place have always been an important but little known problem. These behaviours represent today one of the principal causes of work mishaps in Italy and are responsible for the marginalization of many subjects from the working world. Recently some laws (DPR 309/90 and Legge Quadro 125/2001) and their subsequent decrees have affronted this problem, highlighting its extreme complexity (diverse aspects in fact still remain to be solved from the organizational and legal-medical points of view). In the last few decades, Medicine and Occupational Psychology have focused on the relationship between employees' professional activity and private life, analyzing the problem of psychoactive substance abuse. In Anglo-Saxon countries, for example, Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) have been implemented--a key element of which is the support to alcohol and drug abusers--in order to offer employees and their families help in coping with problems that could adversely impact their work and personal lives. After examining these laws, including their contradictory aspects, we propose two main modes of intervention: prevention focused on the identification of alternative behaviour and the promotion of self-help groups.