React to this article in the Discussion Forum. Abraham J. Twerski, M.D., is founder and medical director of Gateway Rehabilitation Center and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Although stress in itself is not the cause of drug abuse, the person who has the propensity towards drug abuse in a high stress position has an increased reason for recourse to drugs.
Physicians have easy accessibility.
They can prescribe drugs for a long time before it is picked up that they are prescribing illegally for themselves. No on knows for certain, but the statistics that are usually kicked around is that anywhere between 10-15 percent of physicians are addicted to either alcohol or drugs. Unfortunately, early on there is virtually no detection means, because people who use drugs can continue to function to all appearances at high level until they take enough that it begins to impair either actual functioning or memory, which they somehow manage to cover up. Physicians who know that a colleague has an alcohol or drug problem should talk with the family of the physician, and they should either confront the physician themselves or contact their local physician's health program. In that way, it's possible to intervene at an earlier stage before the disastrous consequences occur.