Attitudes of General Population and Physicians Towards Alcohol Addiction

Aim: To assess attitudes of general population and medical doctors towards alcohol addiction. Material and Method: 99 medical doctors who worked university hospitals, public hospitals or health centers and 101 people who selected from the community to represent the overall population enrolled in our study. All the participants were asked to anonymously complete a questinnaire about stigmatization, including questions assessing social distance, dangerousness and skillfullness. Results: Contrary to expectattions, there were not statistically significant differences in the attitudes of general poupulation and physicians towards alcohol dependences (all scales, p>0.05).Discussion: Both medical doctors and general population appear to have negative thoughts about alcohol dependence. New education strategies is developed in the field of general medical education and psychiatry in order to change negative attitudes towards alkohol addiction