University of Washington researchers said they expected to find that having access to narcotic medications would be a big factor in relapse among physicians. But a study focusing on anesthesiologists showed that doctors are not much different than other people when it comes to the challenges of addiction and recovery.

"Things are more complicated than we thought," said lead researcher Dr. Karen B. Domino. "The thought was that since anesthesiologists can give patients these potent drugs without writing prescriptions, they might have more of a predilection to take these opioids. It wasn't so, except in the presence of the other risk factors, such as having a family history or a concurrent psychiatric disorder."

About a quarter of the 292 doctors studied relapsed during the study period, which began in 1991. Researchers found that those with a family history of addiction were 2.3 times more likely to relapse, while having a cooccurring psychiatric disorder made doctors 5.8 times more likely to relapse. Multiple risk factors raised the likelihood of relapse even higher.

David R. Gastfriend, M.D., formerly of Harvard Medical School and currently vice president of medical affairs for pharmaceutical company Alkermes Inc., said the study "tells us that it is not enough to assume that physicians in certain specialties with access to more dangerous drugs are the ones at higher risk. It tells us we have to study each individual physician more carefully. If we do, we can tailor treatment to that person's needs and probably increase our success rate."

The study was published in the March 23, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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