Abstract
This chapter describes the impact of acute and chronic stress, including discussion of the long-term health risks associated with chronic stress. The chapter focuses on factors that contribute to chronic stress in physicians, including individual factors, professional/practice factors, and organizational factors. It includes discussion of both physical and mental health sequelae, as well as discussion of the impact of chronic stress on relationships and connection.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
McEwen BS. Neurobiological and systemic effects of chronic stress. Chronic Stress. 2017;1(1):1–11.
Sadock BJ, Sadock VA, Ruiz P. In: Pataki CS, Sussman N, editors. Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry. 11th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer; 2015, 1472 p.
CAMH. Stress [Internet]. Mental illness and addiction index. 2019 [cited 2019 Nov 10]. p. 1. Available from: https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/stress.
Buddeberg-Fischer B, Stamm M, Buddeberg C, Klaghofer R. Chronic stress experience in young physicians: impact of person- and workplace-related factors. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2010;83(4):373–9.
Myszkowski N, Villoing B, Zenasni F, Jaury P, Boujut E. Monitoring stress among internal medicine residents: an experience-driven, practical and short measure. Psychol Heal Med. 2017;22(6):719–26.
Eisenach JH, Sprung J, Clark MM, Shanafelt TD, Johnson BD, Kruse TN, et al. The psychological and physiological effects of acute occupational stress in new anesthesiology residents: a pilot trial. Anesthesiology. 2014;121(4):878–93.
Ramsay DS, Woods SC. Clarifying the roles of homeostasis and allostasis in physiological regulation. Psychol Rev. 2014;121(2):225–47.
Kaufmann M. The BASICS: strategies for coping with stress and building personal resilience for physicians. 2014.
McEwen BS. Allostasis, allostatic load, and the aging nervous system: role of excitatory amino acids and Excitotoxicity. Neurochem Res. 2000;25(9–10):1219–31.
Selye H. A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents. Nature. 1936;138(3479):32.
LeBlanc VR. The effects of acute stress on performance: implications for health professions education. Acad Med. 2009;84(10):S25–33.
Myers DG. Stress and health. In: Exploring psychology in modules. 8th ed. New York: Worth Publishers; 2010. p. 418–36.
Diamond DM, Campbell AM, Park CR, Halonen J, Zoladz PR. The temporal dynamics model of emotional memory processing: a synthesis on the neurobiological basis of stress-induced amnesia, flashbulb and traumatic memories, and the Yerkes-Dodson law. Neural Plast. 2007;2007(60803):1–33.
Viehmann A, Kersting C, Thielmann A, Weltermann B. Prevalence of chronic stress in general practitioners and practice assistants: personal, practice and regional characteristics. PLoS One. 2017;12(5):1–13.
Töyry S, Kalimo R, Äärimaa M, Juntunen J, Seuri M, Rädänen K. Children and work-related stress among physicians. Stress Heal. 2004;20(4):213–21.
Wallace JE, Lemaire JB, Ghali WA. Physician wellness: a missing quality indicator. Lancet. 2009;374(9702):1714–21.
McEwen BS, Eiland L, Hunter RG, Miller MM. Stress and anxiety: structural plasticity and epigenetic regulation as a consequence of stress. Neuropharmacology. 2012;62(1):3–12.
Smith SI, Dandignac M. Perfectionism: addressing lofty expectations in medical school. In: Smith CR, editor. Exploring the pressures of medical education from a mental health and wellness perspective. 1st ed. Hershey: IGI Global; 2017. p. 68–91.
Henning K, Ey S, Shaw D. Perfectionism, the impostor phenomenon and psychological adjustment in medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy students. Med Educ. 1998;32(5):456–64.
Blatt SJ. The destructiveness of perfectionism: implications for the treatment of depression. Am Psychol. 1995;50(12):1003–20.
Gabbard GO. The role of compulsiveness in the Normal physician. JAMA J Am Med Assoc. 1985;254(20):2926–9.
Carver CS, Connor-Smith J. Personality and coping. 2010.
Tartas M, Walkiewicz M, Budzi W, Wójcikiewicz K, Zdun-Ryzewska A. The coping strategies during medical education predict style of success in medical career : a 10-year longitudinal study. 2016;1–8.
Carver CS. You want to measure coping but your protocol’s too long: consider the brief COPE. 1997;4:92–100.
Gloria CT, Steinhardt MA. Relationships among positive emotions, coping. Resil Mental Health Stress Heal. 2016;32(2):145–56.
Riley R, Spiers J, Buszewicz M, Taylor AK, Thornton G, Chew-Graham CA. What are the sources of stress and distress for general practitioners working in England? A qualitative study. BMJ Open. 2018;8(1):1–7.
Franza F, Del Buono G, Pellegrino F. Psychiatric caregiver stress: clinical implications of compassion fatigue. Psychiatr Danub. 2015;27:S321–7.
Benson J, Magraith K. Compassion fatigue and burnout: the role of Balint groups. Aust Fam Physician. 2005;34(6):497–8.
Weilenmann S, Schnyder U, Parkinson B, Corda C, von Känel R, Pfaltz MC. Emotion transfer, emotion regulation, and empathy-related processes in physician-patient interactions and their association with physician well-being: a theoretical model. Front Psych. 2018;9(AUG):1–18.
Pearlman LA, Saakvitne KW. Treating therapists with vicarious traumatization and secondary traumatic stress disorders. In: Figley CR, editor. Compassion fatigue: coping with secondary ndary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. New York: Brunner-Routledge; 1995. p. 150–77.
Çalişkan Tür F, Toker I, Şaşmaz CT, Hacar S, Türe B. Occupational stress experienced by residents and faculty physicians on night shifts. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2016;24(1):1–8.
Vyas A, Mitra R, Shankaranarayana Rao BS, Chattarji S. Chronic stress induces contrasting patterns of dendritic remodeling in hippocampal and amygdaloid neurons. J Neurosci. 2002;22(15):6810–8.
Gu HF, Tang CK, Yang YZ. Psychological stress, immune response, and atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis. 2012;223(1):69–77.
Esler M. Mental stress and human cardiovascular disease. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017;74:269–76.
Stefanaki C, Pervanidou P, Boschiero D, Chrousos GP. Chronic stress and body composition disorders: implications for health and disease. Hormones. 2018;17(1):33–43.
Xi X, Lu Q, Wo T, Pei P, Lin G, Hu H, et al. Doctor’s presenteeism and its relationship with anxiety and depression: a cross-sectional survey study in China. BMJ Open. 2019;9(7):e028844.
Shanafelt TD, Bradley KA, Wipf JE, Back AL. Burnout and self-reported patient care in an internal medicine residency program. Ann Intern Med. 2002;136(5):358–67.
Baker K, Sen S. Healing medicine’s future: prioritizing physician trainee mental health. AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(6):604–13.
Shanafelt TD, Sloan JA, Habermann TM. The well-being of physicians. Am J Med. 2003;114(6):513–9.
Shanafelt TD, Balch CM, Bechamps G, Russell T, Dyrbye L, Satele D, et al. Burnout and medical errors among American surgeons. Ann Surg. 2010;251(6):995–1000.
Levey RE. Sources of stress for residents and recommendations for programs to assist them. Acad Med. 2001;76(2):142–50.
Maslach C, Leiter MP. Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry. 2016;15(2):103–11.
Shanafelt TD, Hasan O, Dyrbye LN, Sinsky C, Satele D, Sloan J, et al. Changes in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians and the general US working population between 2011 and 2014. Mayo Clin Proc. 2015;90(12):1600–13.
Canadian Medical Association. CMA National Physician Health Survey – a national snapshot. 2018.
West CP, Huschka MM, Novotny PJ, Sloan JA, Kolars JC, Habermann TM, et al. Association of perceived medical errors with resident distress and empathy: a prospective longitudinal study. J Am Med Assoc. 2006;296(9):1071–8.
Tawfik DS, Profit J, Morgenthaler TI, Satele DV, Sinsky CA, Dyrbye LN, et al. Physician burnout, Well-being, and work unit safety grades in relationship to reported medical errors. Mayo Clin Proc. 2018;93(11):1571–80.
Anderson P. Physicians experience highest suicide rate of any profession. Medscape, Conf News. 2018:1–2.
Myers MF. Medical marriages and other intimate relationships. Med J Aust. 2004;181(7):392–4.
Chesanow N. Think it’s tough being a doctor? Try being a doctor’s kid. Med Econ. 1998;75(8):168–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ritsma, A., Forrest, L. (2020). Causes of Chronic Stress and Impact on Physician Health. In: Hategan, A., Saperson, K., Harms, S., Waters, H. (eds) Humanism and Resilience in Residency Training. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45627-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45627-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45626-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45627-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)