Physician Drug Use: Availability or Occupational Stress?

Abstract

This research examines the nature and frequency of reported drug use in a sample of health professionals and considers occupational stress as a possible explanation for the high rate of drug use among physicians. Anonymous questionnaires, eliciting drug use frequency and occupational stress, were sent to physicians and dentists practicing in West Virginia. Physicians report greater drug use than dentists, even though dentists also have legal access to prescription drugs. Among physicians there is a significant positive relationship between occupational stress and the use of selected drugs. This finding lends tentative support to the hypothesis that drug use among physicians is not primarily a function of drug availability.