Waiting for abuse to progress to levels that call for mandated treatment, professional sanctions, and the possibility of patient endangerment should never be allowed to occur. Anyone suffering through addiction benefits from treatment sooner than later, but prompt and prophylactic treatment is of paramount importance to anyone desiring to preserve a medical reputation, and to ensure that they do not abuse the trust their patients bestow.
Tackled early, the prognosis, both professionally and personally is excellent, and the determination, intelligence and strength of character needed to pass through medical school serve a recovering doctor well in the battle towards sobriety. Addictions can be beaten, but professional help is often required. It doesn’t matter who you are or how smart you are, without appropriate treatment, addiction generally wins. Doctors need to act proactively to save their reputations, to ensure the safety of their patients, and to restore their personal health and well being.
Ultimately, doctors are human beings, and subject to the same human frailties as the rest of us. Unfortunately, the price they potentially pay for an all too normal transgression towards abuse and dependence is very high.
page last update Aug 05, 2010
