Publication Date

Spring 2015

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

Sturm College of Law

Keywords

Anxiety, Depression, Stress, Substance abuse, Competitive atmosphere, Neuroscience, Chronic stress, Self-medication, Neurobiology, Lawyer brain, Addiction, Neuro-intelligence, Neurotransmitters, Motivation, Reward, Drugs, Narcotics, Addiction, Healing, Exercise

Abstract

Lawyers suffer from higher levels of anxiety and depression than the rest of the population, but most do not enter law school with these mental health issues. Disciplinary actions against attorneys involve substance abuse 50 to 75 percent of the time. However, neuroscience research has shown that both the brain and the genes enjoy the power of plasticity, which means that personal choices and environments shape the development of lawyers throughout their lives. Legal educators need a better understanding of what aspects or characteristics of legal education contribute to the decline in mental health of law students, lawyers, and judges, and neuroscience developments may provide this insight.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Austin, Debra; Nevada Law Journal

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

56 pgs

File Size

435 KB

Publication Title

Nevada Law Journal

Volume

15

Issue

2

First Page

826

Last Page

881

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