Addiction in Anaesthesiologists and its Implications on Anaesthesia

The problem of addiction and substance abuse among physicians has been reported as early as 1869 [1]. But, medical community is generally reluctant to accept and report the problem of addiction among health care professionals. Anaesthesiologist by virtue of their work profile and easy accessibility of potentially addicting drugs are at an increased risk of drug addiction. The incidence of abuse is estimated to be around 1% in faculty members and 1.6% of residents in training programs [2]. As high as 1/4th of the medical professionals reported for abuse are anaesthesiologists.A number of theories are suggested to explain an increased incidence of drug addiction in anesthesiologist as compared to other professionals. These include easy availability of drugs, stressful environment, the nature of their job along with family tendency and genetic predisposition [3,4]. The anesthesiologist is involved in around-the-clock care to a variety of patients in giving perioperative care which requires collection and evaluation of data, development and implementation of strategies to maintain the desired safe patient status. These demands make the humans responsible to provide safe operations, stretch and strain their physiological system to the limits [5]. They are often faced with physical stress (confined space, extreme of temperature), psychological stress (relationship with surgeons, fear of complications and death of patient), mental stress (difficult patients due associated comorbidities or complex surgical intervention) and physiological stress (unwell resulting in the body using more energy fighting the illness and hence less energy to perform vital tasks, not having proper meals also result in not having enough energy andinduces symptoms like headache and shaking, lack of sleep) [6-8].