Psychoactive drug use among medical doctors is higher than in the general population

Physician don't heal thyself: a descriptive study of impaired older doctors

“…A surprising finding from our data was a prevalence of narcotic use almost equal to alcohol abuse and sometimes complicated by depression or cognitive dysfunction. This, of course, represents doctors who are identified as being impaired and contrasts with other studies based on more naturalistic sampling, which have showed lower psychoactive drug use amongst older doctors (Farley and Talbott, 1983;Domenighetti et al, 1991).…”

“…These disorders are well documented in younger physicians who are said to suffer from the "the three Ds" (depression, drugs and drink) (Schattner et al, 2004). Younger impaired physicians (particularly those who abuse substances) are often male, working within a rural setting and frequently come from the specialties of psychiatry, anaesthetics and emergency medicine (Domenighetti et al, 1991;Hughes et al, 1992;Pethebridge, 2005). In contrast, the demographics of and patterns of impairment in older impaired physicians are virtually unknown.…”

Drug-caused deaths in Australian medical practitioners and health-care professionals

“…The increased risk for abuse of opioids and benzodiazepines among HCPs observed in this study has been reported previously . The use of psychoactive drugs, both licit and illicit, is reportedly higher among medical practitioners than in the general population , with this study suggesting the same trend among all HCPs.…”

Substance-Related Disorders Among Anesthesiologists

“…If alcohol is excluded from the analysis, the prevalence of substance abuse among physicians is closer to 2%. 24 The rate of substance abuse varies among specialties; however, the highest rates are reported among anesthesiologists, psychiatrists, and emergency physicians, and the lowest rates are reported among surgeons and pediatricians. 25 Evidence identifying anesthesiologists as a particularly high-risk group derives from a number of sources.…”