Risk factors for the disease of chemical dependence, or addiction to alcohol and/or drugs, for physicians have not been clearly defined. Yet chemical dependence is believed to be a leading occupational hazard for physicians. This study compares the specialties of a population of physicians assessed for the presence of impairment (study group, N = 1000) with the distribution of specialties for all US physicians. Only 21 of the total were found to be free of impairment from chemical dependence or psychiatric disease, while 920 physicians (92.0%) had a primary diagnosis of chemical dependence, and 59 (5.9%) had a major psychiatric illness. Anesthesia and family and general practice were found to be overrepresented in the population under study, as compared with all US physicians. There were significant differences between the study group and all US physicians with respect to age, sex, and practice activity status. The authors urge these apparent high-risk specialties, as well as the medical profession itself, to develop control or prevention strategies that will reduce risk for chemical dependence through education, early identification, intervention, and treatment of those individuals with the disease.

Granger (1959) demonstrated that psychologists perceive a prestige hierarchy of occupations in their own field. Tins study was an attempt to determine if the perception of the hierarchy was unique to psychologists. Granger's original questionnaire (consisting of 20 psychological occupations to be ranked according to prestige) was given to a sample of University students, who were grouped as "naive (N -111)" or "advanced (N = 73)" in terms ol psychulug.c.il training and identification with the field. The rankings of "naive" and "advanced" students wcie compared to those of Granger's APA random sample, the three hierarchies were sufficiently similar to indicate that the perception of the hierarchy is not determined by training, experience cr ego involvement with ps>chology.

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Self-concept reports of 35 hospitalized male alcoholics, as measured by the McKmney Sentence Completion Blank, were examined for relationships with the sobriety interval in the hospital setting. A negative relationship (r-.33) was noted between the length of time sober and the index of a favorable concept of self, and a positive correlation (r = .24) resulted from measures of the sobriety interval and responses indicating self defeat, guilt and fear. Mechanisms of these relationships were discussed in the framework of Dabrowski's (1964) theory of "positive disintegration." There is some suggestion that the longer the alcoholic remained in the hospital and abstained from alcohol, the less favorable self concept he reported, the more guilt feelings he expressed and the less ego strength he demonstrated in facing up to crises.