title: Use of psychoactive substances in three medical specialties: anaesthesia, medicine and surgery.
abstract: In order to determine the prevalence of psychoactive substance use in three specialty groupings, 1,624 questionnaires were sent to physicians in medicine, surgery and anaesthesia; all had trained at the same academic institution. A response rate of 57.8% was achieved. Comparison of prevalence of impairment rates showed no differences between Surgery (14.4%), Medicine (19.9%) and Anaesthesia (16.8%). Substance abuse was clearly associated with a family history of abuse; 32.1% of the abusers had a family history of such abuse compared with 11.7% of the non-abusers. Increased stress at various career stages did not appear to increase substance abuse; problem areas during medical life times were similar for each specialty. Substances most frequently used were marijuana (54.7%), amphetamines (32.9%); and benzodiazepines (25.1%). Seventy-three used psychoactive drugs which were non-prescribed. Drug counselling programmes were judged inadequate by most. Use of alcohol and drugs by faculty members was reported by a number of respondents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lutsky
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hopwood
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Abram
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cerletty
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Hoffman
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Kampine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008511:Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010815:Physician Impairment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D013038:Specialization; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000453:epidemiology; D013337:Students, Medical; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs