Addicted Physicians
A Closer Look
- Richard P. Johnson, MD;
- John C. Connelly, MD
- From the Menninger School of Psychiatry (Dr Johnson) and the C. F. Menninger Memorial Hospital (Dr Connelly), Topeka, Kan. Dr Connelly is currently the director of the Alcoholism Recovery Program at the Menninger Clinic. Dr Johnson is now a staff psychiatrist at the Bay Pines Veterans Administration Hospital, Bay Pines, Fla.
Abstract
Fifty physicians were evaluated and treated in a psychiatrically oriented, short-term addiction program. Psychopathology ranged from overt schizophrenia to no demonstrable psychiatric syndrome other than the addiction. Physicians experiencing addiction problems before age 40 years were more likely to exhibit serious psychopathology in the borderline range, while physicians older than 40 years were more likely to exhibit organic brain impairment and depression. Treatment outcome had some relation to psychiatric diagnosis but no relation to the addictive agent.
(JAMA 1981;245:253-257)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to The Menninger Foundation, Box 829, Topeka, KS 66601 (Dr Connelly).
