Knowledge of medical students, residents, and attending physicians about opiate abuse

A questionnaire concerning knowledge of opiate abuse and attitudes about abusers was administered to 94 randomly selected physicians and medical students at a large urban teaching hospital. Physicians from four clinical departments and at each level of residency training and medical students in the final year were represented. The mean knowledge score was 3.3 out of a possible 12. Neither the level of training nor specialty was related to test score for the group as a whole. However, family practitioners gained knowledge with increasing experience, while medical and surgical specialists scored lower as they advanced in training. On the attitude section, physicians had strong but individualistic views about drug abuse. Level of training, specialty, and knowledge test score were on the whole unrelated to attitude. The results indicated that physicians at every level of training might benefit from improved teaching in the area of opiate abuse.