Drug abuse could be an occupational hazard.Among physicians most likely to become addicted to prescription drugs, anesthesiologists top the list. Their high rate of drug abuse has traditionally been blamed on easy access to opioids, a type of painkiller including morphine that many anesthesiologists administer on the job. However, new research suggests that the very nature of their work may put anesthesiologists at a higher risk of becoming addicts than other doctors are. Neurologists, oncologists, and other physicians also have ready access to potential drugs of abuse. Because these doctors aren't as likely to become addicts as anesthesiologists are, Mark Gold of the University of Florida University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,912 students (as of Fall 2006) and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. in Gainesville and his colleagues speculated that factors besides easy access might be at play. Gold's team sampled the air above patients' fazes during surgeries, the place where an anesthesiologist Anesthesiologist A medical specialist who administers an anesthetic to a patient before he is treated. Mentioned in: Anesthesia, General, Appendectomy, Parathyroidectomy anesthesiologist usually works. Several analyses revealed high concentrations of the same opioids that the anesthesiologists had administered intravenously to the patients. The researchers suspect that patients exhale exhale /ex·hale/ (eks´hal) to breathe out. ex·hale v. 1. To breathe out. 2. To emit a gas, vapor, or odor. a small amount of the painkillers that have entered their blood. Previous studies showed that repeated exposure to small doses of drugs can make people more susceptible to drug addiction drug addiction or chemical dependency Physical and/or psychological dependency on a psychoactive (mind-altering) substance (e.g., alcohol, narcotics, nicotine), defined as continued use despite knowing that the substance causes harm. . Gold and his colleagues suggest that the brains of anesthesiologists are primed for abuse because they inhale in·hale v. 1. To breathe in; inspire. 2. To draw something such as smoke or a medicinal mist into the lungs by breathing; inspire. drugs in their patients' breath. If further tests confirm their theory, the researchers suggest that protective measures during surgery could reduce this occupational hazard occupational hazard n. a danger or risk inherent in certain employments or workplaces, such as deep-sea diving, cutting timber, high-rise steel construction, high-voltage electrical wiring, use of pesticides, painting bridges, and many factories. . |
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