Female physicians as psychiatric patients

Abstract

Despite the small size of the sample presented the following conclusions are tentatively suggested and may, with further data, be amenable to statistical verification. If female physicians are less equipped than male physicians to tolerate the heavy physical and emotional stresses of medical practice, one might assume that they would turn up more frequently as patients in psychiatric hospitals than their male counterparts. In this study, female physicians were under represented among hospitalized physicians. In Ontario 81.5 percent of women physicians are in active practice. Only three of our patients were in active practice at the time of their admission, and only a minority had actually established careers in medicine. There is no evidence to support the thesis that the stress of combining an active practice with the role of wife and mother is a significant factor in the etiology of psychiatric hospitalization. The group of patients were characterized by not being in active practice and being single. Fifty four percent showed evidence of insecurity of childhood. Single physicians were admitted at a younger age than married physicians. Women physicians require hospitalization less often than their male counterparts. Nonetheless, those who do require hospitalization have a high incidence of alcohol and drug dependence.