Abstract
Family medicine physicians from four midwestern states were surveyed about their knowledge of substance abuse and wishes for continuing education. The results suggested that most of the 361 respondents had very little training about substance abuse in their formal training programs or continuing education efforts. Ten percent reported no training at all about substance abuse in medical school, 15% had none during residency, and 21% had no continuing education on substance abuse. Most respondents said that they preferred continuing education programs that are part of an annual conference and were unlikely to use more technologically advanced distance learning techniques. In open-ended comments, they reported concerns about payment for substance abuse treatment, lack of locally available treatment resources, frustration about patient denial or lack of motivation to change, and lack of time to conduct substance abuse assessments, and they expressed a need for further training on these issues.