RT Journal
A1 Rockwell DA
T1 MIstreatment and maladaptations during medical internship
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1998
FD August 26
VO 280
IS 8
SP 699
OP 700
DO 10-1001/pubs.JAMA-ISSN-0098-7484-280-8-jbk0826
UL http://dx.doi.org/10-1001/pubs.JAMA-ISSN-0098-7484-280-8-jbk0826
AB 
To the Editor.—Buried in Dr Daugherty and colleagues'1 interesting article are numbers that are profoundly disturbing. The 1274 interns apparently identified at least 134 colleagues impaired by alcohol and 44 colleagues impaired by prescription drug abuse or illegal drug use in the course of a single year. The authors' minimization of these findings "alcohol use as a reason for impairment was reported by less than 15%. . . . While prescription drug abuse and illegal drug use were cited by only 5.0%" underscores the medical profession's denial of this serious problem. Lack of sleep pales in comparison with these data, especially in view of the reported number of hours worked (56.9 hours), a number comparable to hours worked by the average clinician in practice.