Substance abuse by physicians

Drug abuse by health workers
Smoking by physicians
Alcohol abuse by doctors

Nature

Due to the unique stresses of a medical career (long hours, family pressures, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, exposure to diseases, lack of exercise) plus the easy access to pure drugs, many doctors are drug abusers. Doctors generally tend to ignore their own illnesses and when found out, there is not any specific counselling service or treatment available to them.

Background

Physicians and nonphysicians who are depressed tend to self-medicate. Alcohol is the easiest and most available chemical used to try to treat depression. The flip side is that those who abuse alcohol often have a diagnosable depressive disorder. When there is a stigma associated with seeking psychiatric help or with taking antidepressants, the need to relieve symptoms often goes underground in the form of alcohol abuse.

Incidence

The AMA estimated, in 1984, that at least 4,000 of the 500,000 doctors in the USA were addicted to drugs, opium and cocaine being the favourites. It also reported that the addiction rate for doctors in the USA is 30-100 times higher than in the general population.

Claim

An alcoholic is a person who drinks more than his own physician.

Physicians, who have easy access to controlled substances, may start self-medicating with those and find themselves in a lot of trouble with drug abuse. Looking at so-called "psychological autopsies" on physician suicides, a very high percentage have alcohol or drugs in their system, and many have abused drugs or alcohol shortly before their death. Alcohol and drugs impair cognition, decrease inhibition and increase impulsivity. Many suicides are an impulsive reaction to situational events. Individuals whose judgement is not impaired have a better chance of using their other coping skills to avoid suicide.