Drunk Drivers Are Risky
Hold the phone! This just in! A new study in the journal Addiction shows that people convicted of drunk driving appear to have a lifelong struggle with risky drinking habits. I know, right? Crazy stuff.
“A DWI (driving while intoxicated) conviction identifies people at risk,” said study leader Sandra Lapham, at the Behavioral health Research Center of the Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “It’s a difficult problem with no easy answer,” she also added.
Looks like we have a new addition to the Obvious Hall of Fame. Congratulations, Dr. Lapham.
I suspect the study’s purpose was to put in statistics-based writing the fact that the overwhelming majority of DUI/DWI arrests aren’t of “normal” drinkers who overindulged on one occasion, but of chronic inebriates. As you may have noticed in your practice, alcoholics have been known to minimize and lie.
By the way, is it still true that few medical schools have required courses in diagnosing/treating addiction, although it underlies a whopping percent of all medical disorders?