Cardiovascular Business: How Mental Health Conditions Are Affecting Cardiologists

In a survey of nearly 6,000 cardiologists, more than 1 in 4 say they experience mental health conditions.

Mental illness among physicians is an increasingly recognized concern, but it is a subject many do not want to acknowledge or discuss because of the public perceptions about mental health issues, physicians being held to a high standard, and concerns about how these issue may impact their clinical decision making.

"Pursuing a career in cardiology can be a master class in delayed gratification and quiet suppression of self-care," explained Andrew J. Sauer, MD, a heart failure and heart transplant specialist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, Missouri, who wrote an editorial on the study. "We commonly defer life timelines, including debt reduction, investing, marriage, parenting and so on, all in the spirit of commitment to patient-care excellence. And the intrinsic rewards of easing the suffering of our patients while experiencing the enrichment of the patient-doctor relationship cannot be understated. But medicine is increasingly isolating for many."

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