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Richard B. Patt, MD
City Island, NY

JAMA. 1985;254(22):3180-3181.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The recent report of Dr Adler et al, "Narcotics Control in Anesthesia Training,"¹ was of great interest. Hard data on the magnitude of this problem and its consequences are minimal. It is clear, however, that physician drug abuse is a devastating phenomenon, and in no subspecialty does it seem more rampant than in anesthesia: one study revealed that 1% to 2% of anesthesia personnel had come to the attention of their chairman because of drug or alcohol abuse, and that seven of 44 abusers were reported to have died as a result of problems related to abuse.² Given the nature of the drugs available (super-potent synthetic narcotics) and the anesthesiologists' responsibility for the custody of critically ill and anesthetized (helpless) patients, the consequences of drug abuse in this field are particularly devastating.

The authors' efforts to address and in some measure to control the problem . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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