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Intake of and attitudes to alcohol and alcoholism

A questionnaire survey among future doctors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John J. Sharkey  and
Diana Patterson
John J. Sharkey*
Affiliation:
Knockbracken Healthcare Park, Saintfield Road, Belfast BT8 8BH
Diana Patterson
Affiliation:
Shaftesbury Square Hospital, 116–120 Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7BW
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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We examined the extent of alcohol misuse among final year medical students and explored their attitudes to their drinking and the drinking of others in order to gain insight into why junior doctors frequently fail to identify alcohol misusers. The questionnaire included AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Investigation Test), personal details and an attitudinal component. Response rate was 92%. Forty-six students (37.8%) scored as alcohol misusers. Teetotallers had a more judgmental attitude towards ‘alcoholism’. Extremes of drinking behaviour among students may affect later patient care.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 16 - 18
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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