The effect of an educational program on the desire for treatment among impaired medical students

Medical student impairment is recognized as a serious problem. Many medical schools attempt to treat or prevent impairment through the use of educational programs. However, the effectiveness of this method has not been tested. A major difficulty is that impaired students are often unwilling to seek help. I hypothesized that educational programs might help overcome this problem, and used a retrospective study to test for an association between attendance at a series of lectures about impairment and feeling the need for counseling among impaired medical students. A statistically significant association was found between having attended the lectures and feeling the need for counseling. This study supports the hypothesis that educational programs may be useful as a means of encouraging impaired medical students to seek treatment.