A survey on the prevalence of alcoholism among the faculty and house staff of an academic teaching hospital

Abstract

We studied the extent of alcoholism among faculty and house staff of an urban, university-based teaching hospital. Of 569 questionnaires sent, 282 (50%) were returned and 271 of these were complete enough to be interpretable. Of those responding, 12 (4%) were classified as alcoholic and 26 (10%) as possibly alcoholic. There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of alcoholism in physicians from the different medical specialties or in regard to gender. Nevertheless, with 14% of the respondents to our questionnaire being classified as either alcoholics or possible alcoholics, it appears that this is a pervasive problem in our profession that deserves further study.