Alcohol and drug addiction is on the increase among doctors, with more than 70 per cent who attended a Medical Council health committee suffering addiction problems, a Medical Council annual conference was told yesterday.
Dr Richard Brennan, chairman of the Medical Council health subcommittee, said 21 of the 35 doctors referred to the committee this year were suffering from addictions. A further three doctors had addictions plus mental disability and one had an addiction and a physical disability.
The health subcommittee provides support and also monitors doctors with physical or mental disability. Doctors can be referred to it by Medical Council fitness-to-practise committees or by third parties, or can self-refer.
Nine of the doctors seen by the committee last year had a mental disability, Dr Brennan said, and one had a neurological disability. Nearly half of those with addictions were misusing drugs, four had alcohol problems and eight had drugs and alcohol problems.
Dr Brennan said in the past there was a 50/50 division between referred doctors with mental illness and those with addictions. However, they were now seeing more “addictions and substance abuses”.
Source: Fiona Gartland, Irish Times, 17/11/2012
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