Citation

Richman JA, Flaherty JA, Pyskoty C. J. Stud. Alcohol 1992; 53(1): 17-24.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1556853

Abstract

This study addresses the course of alcohol-related problems in future physicians from the perspectives of occupational stress versus selection and life-span developmental frameworks. A cohort of medical students was surveyed at medical school entrance and during the early fall of the second training year. Self-report questionnaires assessed: alcohol-related problems (using a modified time-linked version of the MAST), pretraining psychosocial and psychopathological characteristics and experiences (symptomatic distress, motivations for drinking, personality attributes/deficits, familial history of problem drinking, family disruption and earlier parental bonding) and medical-training characteristics (perceived stressors and levels of social support). On the basis of MAST scores, respondents manifested the following drinking patterns: consistent nonproblem drinking (67.4%), problem exit or remission during medical training (19.4%), problem entrance or onset during medical training (6.3%) and problem chronicity involving problems before and during medical training (6.9%). Female students were overrepresented in the consistent nonproblem group. The major predictors of Time 2 problem onset and chronicity as opposed to problem remission involved pretraining factors: familial history of alcohol problems, Time 1 symptomatic distress and escape motives for drinking. Future reports will depict the prevalence and etiology of problem drinking manifested during the clinical portion of medical training.

Language: en