ICAAT: General Physician's Attitudes and Experiences with Addiction

Reference: The General Practitioner, the drug misuser, and the alcohol misuser: major differences in general practitioner activity, therapeutic commitment, and shared care proposals by Ann Deehan, Colin Taylor, & John Strang

Deehan, Taylor and Strang (1997) surveyed 157 general practice physicians in Britain working in 64 primary care practices located in the greater London area, regarding their attitudes towards and experience with addiction treatment.

Data Collection Procedures

Data on physician attitudes toward treatment services for patients with a known history of illicit drug and/or excessive alcohol abuse were collected using an eight-page postal questionnaire. Differences in the attitude of general practice physicians toward treatment of drug-misusing versus alcohol-misusing patients were assessed through physician responses to 24 agreement-disagreement statements, each containing a five-point Likert scale.

Results

Twenty percent of general practice physicians in the survey reported seeing no alcohol-misusing patients in their practice, and sixty two percent reported seeing no drug-misusing patients.
Only eighteen percent of the GP's in the survey reported that they had more than one alcohol and/or drug-misusing patient in their practice, and among these doctors, there was an average of 3.5 patients with alcohol problems.
Although the majority GP's surveyed maintained strong negative perceptions of and attitudes toward patients with either drug or alcohol problems, 61% felt that the primary care setting was an appropriate place to treat alcohol-misusing patients, but only 6 % felt this was an appropriate setting for those with a non-alcohol drug problem.

Conclusions

The investigators conclude that the primary care physician workforce in Great Britain, despite attitudinal barriers, are generally willing to provide treatment services to patients in their practice who show signs of problem drinking; this willingness does not extend to those identified as illicit drug users. Investigators believe that British primary care physicians need additional specialized training and incentives if this disparity is to be addressed effectively.

References

Deehan, Ann, Taylor, Colin, Strang, John (1997) The General Practitioner, the drug misuser, and the alcohol misuser: major differences in general practitioner activity, therapeutic commitment, and shared care proposals, British Journal of General Practice, Vol. 47, 705-709.