“…Brewster6 identified methodological flaws and contradictory findings in studies comparing physicians to other groups regarding cirrhosis mortality10-13 and hospital admissions for alcoholism.14-19 She concluded that surveys of physicians regarding alcohol use produce the mostvalid comparisons.6" Our search of the literature revealed that few surveys have been reported to date,7.8,20-25 and these have been limited by either small,7,20.21 selective,20,23 or nonrandom samples;8.21 '24 lack of anonymity for respondents;21 incomplete measures;27 inimal reporting of alcohol results;22 or absence of comparable data on nonphysicians.7,24 25Studies of medical students suffered from similar limitations,26 but recent studies have improved our knowledge substantially. 7,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] This article presents a comprehensive picture of current and lifetime physician alcohol use and abuse from surveys of doctors and medical students, with comparative data on pharmacists, pharmacy students, and lawyers. The article also describes how physicians' drinldng varies by medical specialty, type of practice, gender, and age.…”