More recent data from the 1996–1997 National Population Health Survey showed that, overall, 2.5% of people who drank in the year before the survey drank at "levels associated with clinical dependence on alcohol."³ The rates were 1.1% for those with a university education and 0.8% for those employed in professional or semiprofessional positions. These figures approximate the percentages of physicians ever having received treatment for problems with alcohol and other drugs: 1.2% in Ontario,⁴ 1.8% in Canada⁵ and 1.3% in the United States.⁶

Most provincial medical associations have programs for physicians who need treatment for problems with alcohol and other drugs. However, the discrepancy between estimates of those who experience consequences of drinking and those who require and receive treatment points to a large group whose needs are not being addressed. Provincial physician health programs include educational outreach and lectures to medical students and physicians,⁷ but there is little help for those who feel distress and are beginning to develop problems. Medical schools, hospitals, professional organizations and individual physicians should unite in a health promotion approach to physician health that goes beyond prevention programs, to reduce systemic stresses and involve physicians in building a healthier work environment.