Substance abusers: role of personal and professional role traits in caregivers' causal attributions

Substance abuse continues to be a major health problem compounded by caregivers' negative attitudes toward these patients. We investigated attributions 55 primary care physicians and 315 senior medical students make toward substance abusers. Half of both groups expressed negative causal attributions, with women slightly less negative than men. Mental models based on LISREL regression coefficients showed that higher negative attributions by both physicians and students were related to their increased authoritarianism and depressed mood. Medical students choosing careers in primary care specialties, including psychiatry, expressed a less negative attributional style toward substance abusers than those students entering nonprimary careers. Health professional educators may find that using attribution theory to redefine successful outcomes in management of substance abuse can result in better attitudes for caregivers.