Substance abuse is related to many other health problems, thus making the topic of great public health significance. The scope of this study is the results of focus groups conducted with physicians across the state of Pennsylvania; specifically Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. The purpose was to ascertain the barriers to identifying problem alcohol and drug use in patients by practicing physicians. Physicians statewide acknowledged key barriers to screening; time, access to treatment and financial reasons, both patient financial issues or problems and reimbursement from insurers or commercial payers. Additional barriers that were identified as a result of the focus groups included stigmatizing attitude toward substance use, physicians lack of self-efficacy in managing substance use disorders, and lack of knowledge in this area, among others. The study discusses the results of the focus groups and explores the education that could be offered to physicians in order to increase their knowledge in the area of screening and the identification of problem drug or alcohol use.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08022007-153019 |
| Date | 27 September 2007 |
| Creators | Holland, Cynthia L. |
| Contributors | Randall Smith, PhD, Martha Ann Terry, PhD, James Butler, DrPH |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08022007-153019/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0083 seconds