Many Doctors Suffer from Life-Threatening Mental Strain

Dr. Shikha Jain worked incredibly hard to become a triple board-certified hematologist and oncologist, and she loves caring for her patients. Still, the UI Health physician told Chicago Health, “I think about leaving medicine on a weekly basis.” She’s far from alone. Many physicians say that our existing health care system keeps them from putting patients first while making it risky to address their own mental health needs. Emergency rooms across the country are overflowing with patients who delay care because they lack insurance or a primary care doctor or, in recent years, fear immigration enforcement. ER doctors are thus left to absorb the consequences of every gap in access, treatment and follow-up. Insurance denials, staffing cuts and private equity buyouts only deepen the strain.

“To have an insurance company tell me that I don’t know what I’m prescribing or that this patient should not be getting a certain medication is incredibly frustrating.” Jain said. Insurance companies are also insulated from the moral pain of sitting with a patient and explaining that a necessary treatment has been denied. “They don’t have to have those hard conversations. We do,” she added.

Many physicians experience that tension as moral injury, a term first used to describe the trauma of Vietnam veterans who served in a system at odds with their values. It often goes hand in hand with burnout, which, according to American Medical Association President Dr. Willie Underwood III, climbed to 63% during the pandemic and still stands at 42% years later. In a 2025 survey cited by Chicago Health, 35% of physicians reported considering leaving medicine since the start of that year.

Another study published last year in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that 14% of health care workers reported suicidal thoughts in the past year, 6% said they had made a plan and 3.5% reported attempting suicide. More than 300 physicians die by suicide each year, placing them at greater risk than the general population.

Yet fear for their careers keeps many doctors from seeking help. Applications for licensure ask about mental health diagnoses in the same section as felony convictions, fueling stigma and fear according to Dr. Stefanie Simmons, an ER physician and chief medical officer of the health worker advocacy nonprofit Dr. Lorna Breen Foundation. Breen was a New York City emergency medicine physician, spent the early months of the pandemic caring for hundreds of COVID patients amidst massive shortages of beds, respirators and supplies, and contracted the virus herself. She died by suicide later in 2020. Her family founded the organization that year, saying Breen feared that seeking mental health care could cost her the career that she loved.

Now, the foundation along with the AMA and state medical boards, is pushing to change those questions on the licensure application for one simple query: “Are you currently impaired in your duties for any reason?” As of May 2026, 74 licensing boards, including the medical boards in 44 states, made the change. Hospitals ask similar questions when they credential doctors, but more than 1,400 hospitals, freestanding ERs and surgery centers, as well as over 2,000 urgent care centers, have confirmed that they no longer do so.. Illinois’ Department of Public Health is also expected to update its required credentialing language this fall.

There are also other barriers to mental well-being for health workers. Therapy rarely fits around overnight calls and unpredictable shifts, and some doctors avoid using their workplace mental health benefits for fear the records will follow them into credentialing reviews. Jain says health systems need to back up their encouragement with protected time, affordable treatment and clear confidentiality protections, so the message to doctors becomes: “We will make it possible for you to get help.”