Raymond Noonan

Abstract Fanconi anaemia (FA), a model syndrome of genome instability, is caused by a deficiency in DNA interstrand crosslink repair resulting in chromosome breakage1,2,3. The FA repair pathway protects against endogenous and exogenous carcinogenic aldehydes4,5,6,7. Individuals with FA are hundreds to thousands fold more likely to develop head and neck (HNSCC), oesophageal and anogenital squamous cell carcinomas8 (SCCs).

In our previous two posts and in the article on which those posts are based, we described how data from the National Health Interview Survey partially contradict the conventional wisdom about lawyer well-being and substance abuse. The ABA's Task Force on Lawyer Well Being, relying on surveys made available to all members of a State Bar but completed by a small fraction of the population, expresses concern about extraordinary rates of depression in the legal profession.

Conventional wisdom says that lawyers are uniquely unhappy—but this wisdom rests on a weak empirical foundation, and a large public health dataset provides a more accurate and nuanced story.