About Alcoholism - Alcoholism Information, Research and Treatment

Two additional aspects of the slogan [alcoholism is a disease] have bothered me. The first is that if alcoholism is a disease (or illness) then one would assume that physicians would be the persons best equipped to deal with it. Not only is this not true at present, but I doubt whether the medical profession can ever be expected to carry the brunt of the care, treatment and rehabilitation of alcoholics. At least this will not occur until medicine shifts its major focus from organic illness to the management of psychological conditions and the control of disordered behavior. Neither alcoholism nor emotional disorders fit the classical models of a medical illness. The management of the acute or chronic effects of excessive alcohol intake is a medical responsibility. But dealing with the underlying drinking problem or addiction may not be. Secondly, we are in the unusual position of insisting that alcoholism is a disease and then turning over much of the responsibility for its treatment to a group that is not only nonmedical but also nonprofessional! In most people's minds diseases are complicated biological processes and require highly technical skills and intervention; if alcoholism is a "disease" in this sense it must be a highly unique one in that the most successful form of "therapy" available so far appears to be that of an untrained group, i.e., the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.