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Drug misuse among medical students

Letter from Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ana Maria C. Mesquita
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psiquiatria, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Rua Botucatu 740, Sao Paulo-SP, Brazil 04023–900
John Dunn
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psiquiatria, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Rua Botucatu 740, Sao Paulo-SP, Brazil 04023–900
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Most doctors are probably uncomfortably aware of the old joke that an alcoholic is someone who drinks more than his doctor. But how would one define a drug addict? Because of the taboo and illegal nature of drug misuse, if a similar doctor-based definition were coined, even in jest, it would cause a degree of consternation and indignation among the profession. However, the evidence that doctors abuse certain substances, in particular opiates and tranquillisers (Hughes et al, 1992), more commonly than the general population is well established.

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Briefings
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

Almeida-Filho, N. de, Santana, V. S., Pinto, I. M., et al (1991) Is there an epidemic of drug misuse in Brazil? A review of the epidemiologic evidence (1977–1988). The International Journal of the Addictions, 26, 355369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrade, A. G. de, Bassit, A. Z., Mesquita, A. M., et al (1995) Prevalência do use de drogas entre alunos da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade di São Paulo (1991–93). Reuista ABP-APAL, 17, 4146.Google Scholar
Baldwin, D. C. Jr, Hughes, P. H., Conard, S. E., et al (1991) Substance use among senior students, a survey of 23 medical schools. Journal of the American Medical Association, 265, 20742078.Google Scholar
Hughes, P. H., Brandenburg, N., Baldwin, D. Jr, et al (1992) Prevalence of substance use among physicians. Journal of the American Medical Association, 267, 23332339.Google Scholar
Mesquita, A. M. C., Bucaretchi, H. A., Castel, S., et al (1995) Estudantes da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo: uso de substancias psicoativas em 1991. Rivista ABP-APAL, 17, 4754.Google Scholar
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