Psychiatrists with substance use disorders: positive treatment outcomes from physician health programs.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare outcomes of psychiatrists and nonpsychiatrist physicians enrolled in state physician health programs for substance use disorders.

Methods: The study used the data set from a five-year, longitudinal cohort study of 904 physicians, including 55 psychiatrists, with diagnoses of substance abuse or dependence consecutively admitted to one of 16 state physician health programs between 1995 and 2001.

Results: There was a higher proportion of women among psychiatrists than among other physicians, but there were no other significant differences between the cohorts. Five-year outcomes were similar between psychiatrists and the other physicians, with at least 75% of psychiatrists continuing their medical practice after five years of monitoring and treatment.

Conclusions: Psychiatrists were not overrepresented compared with other physician groups and had similar clinical outcomes at the five-year follow-up. Physician health programs appeared to be effective treatment programs for psychiatrists with substance use disorders.