DRUG ABUSE AMONG STUDENTS IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS

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The proposed study would investigate drug abuse among health profession students and practitioners. State societies of health professionals have become increasingly concerned about the problems of "impairment" (drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness) among their members. Current opinion holds that drug-abuse rates are relatively high among physicians and nurses but low among other health professionals. However, there is little basic research on this question, especially with respect to drug use by professionals other than physicians and nurses. The study's specific aims are to: 1. estimate the extent of drug use (recreational, self-treatment, and instrumental for the full spectrum of psychoactive drugs) among a) students of dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine, and b) physicians and pharmacists; 2. Analyze the resulting data along with previously collected, unpublished data on students of medicine and nursing, as well as students of business, communications, counseling, law and social work; 3. Determine the causes of drug abuse among health professionals, especially the roles of access and stress. These analyses will be used to assess whether there is a need for preventive interventions in professional schools and by professional associations, and to determine what causal factors prevention programs need to address. The survey's methodology will employ self-administered, anonymous questionnaires sent to random samples of 1,500 students (stratified by clinical and preclinical years) and 1,000 practitioners (from professional association listings). The questionnaires will measure history of use and current use of psychoactive drugs, reasons for use (including measures of stress, psychopathology, sensation seeking and access), patterns and consequences of drug use, and drug abuse education. The analysis will employ descriptive statistics and will construct causal models using regression (path) analysis and comparable discrete data techniques (loglinear and logistic regression). The study will be the first of its kind for student health professionals and practitioners, and should be essential for planning and designing prevention and treatment programs for these groups.