Physician Suicide by Yellowlees Peter;

Author:Yellowlees, Peter;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: American Psychiatric Association Publishing
Published: 2018-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Why, then, do physicians become drug addicted as Dr. Ward did? There are of course many reasons that are covered throughout this book. All physicians, like members of the general population, are unique and differentially affected and driven by a large range of genetic, biological, psychological, and social pressures, including all the documented risk factors for addiction, especially childhood trauma and the presence of psychiatric disorders. A number of specific physician-related stressors have been identified, all of which affected Dr. Ward:

High educational demands. American medical students have a history of using alcohol, benzodiazepines, and prescription opiates at a higher rate than their student peers while working long hours with competitive pressures in a culture that endorses substance use as a way to cope with stress.

Patient care. Providing medical care can be rewarding and difficult. Unexpected outcomes and treating difficult or noncompliant patients are challenging, and until recently few physicians received adequate training to manage these stressful patient care issues.

Long hours. The feeling of always being available, with long workdays and trips to the hospital at all hours of the day and night, not only is mentally and physically exhausting but interferes with family, recreation, and self-care, such that physicians often end up eating badly, exercising only occasionally, and sleeping poorly.

Availability of addictive substances. Access to drugs is part of day-to-day practice and always a temptation.

Failure and fear of reporting. While physicians have a professional duty to report colleagues who may be practicing while impaired, numerous studies suggest that few will actually do so when faced with this situation, or will simply not recognize an impaired colleague. Although physicians may feel that this type of professional courtesy is a good short-term response, it unfortunately enables addictive behaviors and prevents addicted doctors from receiving the help they need. Such a conspiracy of silence is frequently perpetuated by family and friends of the addicted physician.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.