There are five elements that constitute these prophylactic guidelines. Avoidance of drinking for the effect rather than the occasion. Dose calculation of the drug as time related. The impact of drinking on the doctor's patients. Factors effecting alcohol consumption, i.e. stress, food, other medications, etc.
Alcohol is probably one of the oldest effective drugs known to mankind.
In fact, the only anesthetic agent we possessed as physicians during the Revolutionary War was alcohol. So much so that if ethyl alcohol were discovered today, it certainly would be considered a controlled substance. Alcohol is still, in some medical quarters, used for direct injections into the major peripheral nerves to interrupt intractable pain. Yet many health professionals consume alcoholic beverages in an inappropriate manner and are incensed when they are told that they are drug abusers. Avoidance of drinking for the effect rather than the occasion.