REUTERS — New research is challenging a notion commonly held in the legal field: lawyers are an especially miserable bunch with elevated rates of mental health problems. The percentage of lawyers with moderate to severe mental health issues is in line with that of doctors, veterinarians and dentists, and is significantly lower than that of people without a college degree, the study found. But the findings, slated to appear in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, do corroborate earlier research that says lawyers drink more than other professionals. Yale Law professor Yair Listokin and student Ray Noonan analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s National Health Interview Survey—a large-scale, annual random sample of Americans. They collected responses from 1,000 lawyers from 2010 to 2017 and compared their rates of mental health problems and heavy drinking to other highly educated professionals and the overall U.S. population.