Patterns of substance use in the medical profession

National drug use surveys of medical students and resident physicians in 1987 found that medical school was not a time when students began to use drugs, nor was it a time when they engaged in heavy use. Medical students and resident physicians reported lower rates of illicit drug use than their age and gender counterparts. Although males generally were more likely to use substances than females, young male and female physicians resembled one another in their current rates of substance use more than they resembled their gender counterparts in society.