PERSPECTIVES OF TREATMENT EFFICACY WITH THE SUBSTANCE DEPENDENT PHYSICIAN - A NATIONAL SURVEY

A national survey was conducted to assess the judgments of two sets of respondents (administrators of state physician health programs and hi ghly experienced clinicians) about the effectiveness of treatment prog rams for chemically dependent physicians. Administrators consistently estimated higher rates of patient success (and less relapse) than thei r practitioner counterparts. Clinicians also identified factors (patie nt, therapist, group composition, context) they believed to be the mos t robust predictors of outcome with chemically impaired doctors. Impli cations of the findings for the conceptualization and design of prospe ctive treatment outcome studies are addressed.