Attitudes toward problem drinkers, revisited: patient-therapist factors contributing to the differential treatment of patients with alcohol problems.

Although there are many treatment alternative open to people with drinking problems, health professionals still exhibit negative attitudes towards alcoholics. In a previous study, the author demonstrated that those patients who were self-labelled alcoholics were treated in a less preferential manner than those who did not identify as such. This study used both overt and unobtrusive measures to determine whether negative attitudes of intake interviewers towards problem drinkers were elicited by the patients' self-label as an alcoholic or by other variables related to perceived treatment outcome. Pre- and postinterview data on patient likability, doctor's eagerness to work with the patient, interview content, treatment disposition, and patient compliance were collected from first-time patients, and from their interviewers, in the walk-in psychiatry and alcohol treatment units of a large, urban teaching hospital. The results elucidate how stereotypes interact with patient characteristics to influence both professional behavior and patient compliance.