Many people are surprised when I tell them that I have clinical depression and anxiety.
Physicians have a higher incidence of mental illness than the general population, and also take their own lives at a higher rate. As many as one-third of medical students and residents screen positive for clinical depression, and approximately one-third of practicing physicians have received an official diagnosis. One survey found that up to 85 percent of physicians experienced some sort of mental health issue. Physicians also commit suicide roughly two times that of the general population, the highest rate of any profession. There is a significant loss of altruism reported among medical students when starting medical school compared to finishing it.