In 2012, the authors sent a survey with questions about alcohol abuse, burnout, depression, fatigue, suicidal ideation, and quality of life to 12,500 medical students of whom 4402 (35.2%) responded.
Of those responding, 1411 (32.4%) “met diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse/dependence.”
According to the Mayo Clinic’s press release, “Nationally, that translates to about one-third of those responding, compared to only 16 percent of peers not in medical school, and double the rate of alcohol abuse or dependence of surgeons, US physicians or the general public based on earlier research by this team.”
The paper also found that burn out, depression, high educational debt, being unmarried, and being younger were associated with dependence on or abuse of alcohol.
The authors called for a multifaceted approach “addressing burnout, medical education costs, and alcohol use.”
Here are some problems with this study.
