• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Company
  • More Games
  • We’re Hiring!
  • Log In

Clinical Encounters: Medical School

  • Home
  • About Us
  • The Game
  • Why It Works
  • Resources
  • News
  • Contact
Home › Burnout Impact › Medical Student Alcohol Use Higher Than Peers

Medical Student Alcohol Use Higher Than Peers

Jan 9, 2019 | Bradley Tanner

Is alcohol your solution for stress management? Stress, burnout, and alcohol use in medical school are common. In fact, alcohol use is more common than you might expect. Is there a connection? That is, does burnout cause excessive alcohol use and/or does alcohol use cause burnout?

Fill out our survey about Stresses And Coping Mechanisms so you can track your burnout status and well-being over time.

An older review of the topic of alcohol use by Dumitrascu et al. shows that this is a persistent problem. They also identified the need for more current research.

Dumitrascu CI, Mannes PZ, Gamble LJ, Selzer JA. Substance use among physicians and medical students. Medical Student Research Journal. 2014;3:26-35.

Rather than discuss their findings, it helps to look at a more recent publication. Three years later, Ayala et al. completed a study looking at alcohol use among medical students.

Ayala EE, Roseman D, Winseman J S, Mason HRC. Prevalence, perceptions, and consequences of substance use in medical students. Med Educ Online. October 26, 2017;22(1). doi:10.1080/10872981.2017.1392824.

Overall use of alcohol in medical students was greater than that seen in the general population, at 91.3%. In fact, much higher. According to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH),  56.3% of young adults aged 18 to 25 were past month alcohol users, a figure consistent with declining alcohol drinking in the past decade.

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Reports and Detailed Tables From the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) | CBHSQ. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2018.

According to the 2016 Monitoring the Future Study, 81% of college students have tried alcohol at least once in their lifetime and 67% report they have been drunk.

Schulenberg John E, Johnston Llyod D, O’Malley Patrick M, Bachman Jerald G, Miech Richard A, Patrick Megan E. Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2017: Volume II, college students and adults ages 19-55. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan. July 2018.

The point is that such a high rate of drinking is happening at a time when rates of alcohol use are decreasing and peers are drinking far less. This drinking pattern is a cause for concern and something to investigate at an institutional level. At a personal level, it is worth asking “Why am I drinking alcohol more than other people my age or college students?”

We seek to educate medical students about the issue of burnout and alcohol use through game-based learning. In BurntOut, medical students are immersed in a virtual reality environment where they practice coping strategies to improve resilience. The BurntOut role-playing experience delivers targeted, realistic narratives and hands-on scenarios to deepen medical student understanding of how to address and overcome burnout during game-play and beyond.

Currently, we are recruiting medical students to test the BurntOut prototype and provide us feedback, as well as provide us information on their own burnout experiences while in medical school. The data we collect from this experience can help further the research on both medical student burnout and physician burnout by identifying these issues early on and addressing them early on in the medical provider’s career. You can learn more about the role-playing experience and how to get involved at the BurntOut website.

Category: Burnout Impact Tagged: alcohol use

Bradley Tanner

Bradley Tanner, MD, ME is a psychiatrist and Studio Head of HealthImpact.studio. In this role, he guides the development and evaluation of novel technological solutions to address health challenges including burnout, stress, and depression seen in medical students, residents, and practicing physicians in their early and later careers. You can reach Dr. Tanner at bradtanner@gmail.com. Personal health concerns and concerns related to suicidality should be addressed with your health professional.

More Posts
 
Health Impact Studio logo

The Clinical Encounters: Medical School team at HealthImpact.Studio is charged with the goal of improving the health of medical students and practicing health professional through novel technology including games, virtual reality, and role-playing simulations.

Keep Reading

Burnout -> Med Student Risky Alcohol Use & SI

Oct 17, 2018

Medical Student Age, Debt & Support -> Burnout

Oct 31, 2018

Leaving College Coping Strategies Behind

Mar 3, 2018

Previous Post: « Pick a Specialty – Any Specialty
Next Post: Binge Drinking in Medical School…Really? »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Burntout
Stress and Coping for Medical Students
Get Early Access!

Available in VR via Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, Playstation – 2019

Keep Reading

  • Hippocratic Oath & Burnout?
    Oct 24, 2018
  • What Works For Burnout Intervention?
    Mar 13, 2019
  • When Patient Behavior Contributes To Cli…
    Nov 28, 2018
Share Your Story

Have you experienced burnout in medical school?

Your stories could help shape the development of this game.

Share Your Story!
newsletter

Want to be kept up to date on the latest news?

Get Our Newsletter!

 

Footer

a product of
Health Impact Studio
a division of Clinical Tools, Inc

Get Early Access
  • Copyright Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Technology Requirements
  • 508 Compliance
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
cemedschool@healthimpact.studio

101 A Market St Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-960-8118

We're Hiring!

Join the Development Team!

© 2021 · Clinical Tools, Inc · Log In

Log In
Login

Forgot Password?
Sign up for our Newsletter!
  • Would you like to test our prototype and give feedback? Want to be kept up to date on our development?


  • Date Format: MM slash DD slash YYYY
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.