Recovery and service: On being a physician with mental illness

Abstract

For physicians with psychiatric illness, especially when newly diagnosed, one concern can be what effect patients' knowledge of their physician's diagnosis can have on their relationship. As a pediatrician with bipolar disease, about which many patients and the community are well aware, I've found that patients are much more concerned with the quality of care they receive than with whatever psychiatric problems their physician might have. I offer this narrative in hopes that it will allay other physicians' fears of “disclosure.