Who Doctors The Doctors?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Most of us, as physicians, try to be superhuman.
Part of it is our personalities, and part of it is the result that it's entrenched in the ways medical schools and hospitals organize the work of medicine.
In training, the hours are long and hard and, even with recent attempts to cut down on the workload for those in training, almost 50% will suffer from burnout, and 1 in 10 will think about suicide.
Physicians are expected to cope with the pressure and prove to be resilient in this kind of environment.
The irony is that, in a field that cares for the ill, disclosure of illness becomes an admission of weakness -- a sign of being unfit to practice medicine.
This is dramatic when it comes to mental health.
Twenty-seven percent of physicians experience depression at certain points in their careers, but only 17% of them reach out for treatment.