Addicted Doctors

[nailit]

Bit of a strange one I know. But are there any statistics that show the percentage of doctors/GPs/surgeons and other medics that have addiction problems? Had a girlfriend once who cleaned for a brain surgeon (of all people), cash in hand. She said that he smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish. His wife put it down to the stress of his job. And I once knew a GP who attended Alcoholics Annonymous who had been in rehab...a functional alcoholic who treated patients while half cut most of the time but still functional when at work.(and apparently quiet a good doctor...many patients requested him for appointments)
Also read once about how many medics turned to substance abuse because of the stress off working in enviroments that dealt with death and illness on a daily basis and had easy access to drugs.

Thanks.

[Zacs-Master]

A bit of info here:
http://sick-doctors-trust.co.uk/page/addiction

[emmie]

someone told me, and they were in earnest, that the highest rates for alcoholism was doctors and publicans.

[nailit]

Thanks Zacs, will have a read.

[nailit]

Ive heard similar emmie.

[emmie]

that was from a doctor.

[nailit]

emm, the doctor I mention in my OP, I knew from attending AA meetings.

[nailit]

And I knew his patients, one of which was my aunty who wouldn't see anyone else.

[campbellking]

A fairly hefty drinking culture at medical school doesn't help much.

[nailit]

Cant imagine it would Campbell ^

[emmie]

a doctor who treated and i use that term loosely, my mother was an out and out alcoholic, she stank to high heavens with the booze, i don't know how she kept her job,

[nailit]

// i don't know how she kept her job//
It costs hundreds of thousands to train a doctor emm. The NHS arnt going to want to lose them after paying that much!

[Jackdaw33]

Nurses and care workers are just the same. The percentage of smokers amongst them is way, way above the national average.

[tonyav]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/7-signs-you-might-be-a-functioning-alcoholic/ar-AAuVtpe?li=AAnZ9Ug

[Patsy33]

I remember when my doctor came out to visit me after have a ceasarian birth with my first. I liked him a lot but boy! did he stink of whiskey!..

[Quizmonster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4080424.stm
Above is a BBC News article from 2005 on addictions among medical staff. I don't imagine things will be very different today.
I actually went to Google hoping to find a copy of a Lancet article from about ten years ago, but couldn't find it. I recall thinking when I read it back then that - on the statistics provided - it was likely that at least two of the doctors at the surgery I used were addicts of one sort or another!

[murraymints]

An ex gp was alcoholic and died with cirrhosis of liver...was a great doc though

[nailit]

Thanks for further replies and links.