Editor - There is much empirical evidence that indicates that junior doctors are stressed1; irrespective of the psychological measurement used, most of us have seen it first hand. But are the maladaptive coping mechanisms used by junior doctors as visible as the physical signs of their stress?
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Binge drinking and drug abuse in doctors and medical students have always been an occupational hazard,2 but drug abuse is undergoing a rapid renaissance. Medical students are exposed to the same illicit experiences as other students: exposure to amphetamines, cannabis, ecstasy, LSD, cocaine, and in some cases heroin - not to mention alcohol and tobacco. But medical students are future doctors. Maladaptive coping skills are hard to shake off, and at the moment there is a small, but ever increasing population of junior doctors who use cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, alcohol, and tobacco recreationally, and as these doctors become more senior, this misuse could begin to present as a sizeable problem.
Dependence on alcohol and other drugs is a known problem among doctors - to what extent the professional competence and quality of care for patients will be affected is not known.
Several calls for the random drug testing of doctors have been made3 4; it is possibly quite laughable that with such drug-wielding power no protocol for testing has been established. Pilots, train drivers, and many others undergo drug testing routinely; yet the "responsible irresponsible" have escaped. My personal concern is that drug abuse has become irreversibly intertwined with youth culture and that there will be a flooding of the medical profession with young doctors who are consistently misusing drugs. It can take one event to shatter the public trust in young doctors and shake the foundation of the entire profession.
