While as many as 15 million Americans use illegal drugs, one-third of primary care physicians and psychiatrists don’t routinely discuss the problem with patients, according to a survey in Archives of Internal Medicine. Fifty-five percent of doctors routinely recommend formal chemical dependency treatment programs to drug-abusing patients, but 15 percent of the 1,082 survey respondents said they rarely intervene at all. Psychiatrists and ob/gyns are the most likely to screen for drug use, but ob/gyns are the least likely to intervene, the survey found. Physicians are more likely to refer patients to a 12-step program than to a formal addiction treatment program.

Why the resistance to discussing drugs? The study authors suggest that doctors have little confidence in their ability to manage drug problems, are pessimistic about the benefits of treatment, are leery of a large time commitment, and believe that patients don’t want to be asked about substance abuse. What’s needed, the researchers conclude, are new strategies to address those concerns.

Taken from Medical Economics, March 19, 2001 issue