DETERMINING PRIORITIES FOR FAMILY PHYSICIAN EDUCATION IN SUBSTANCE-ABUSE BY THE USE OF A SURVEY

As the initial stage in developing a curriculum to assist family physi cians to diagnose and manage alcohol abuse in their practices, questio nnaires were mailed to a selected group of family physicians. A total of 117 physicians (34%) completed the questionnaire. The majority of p hysicians (70.1%) reported that fewer than 10% of their caseload exper ienced alcohol-related problems. Most physicians (59.3%) did not use a ny of the standard diagnostic instruments but reported that screening and detection was the most challenging alcohol-related problem along w ith patient management. The questionnaire identified a number of areas that could be used in the development of educational strategies to in crease the expertise of primary care physicians in the diagnosis and m anagement of alcohol-related problems.