Mental Health

Neurosurgery is a challenging and stressful field. Excessive stress and professional dissatisfaction can lead to medical errors, negatively impact patient care, and cause physician burnout.

In the context of long hours and alternating shift and sleep cycles, the lack of exercise and poor dietary choices may have negative short- and long-term consequences on physician physical and mental health. Historically, “resident” physicians lived in the hospital and were entirely devoted to caring for their patients; thus, personal health was abandoned in the pursuit of a medical education. We now teach residents in the context of enforced duty-hour restrictions. However, it is commonplace for physicians (residents and faculty) to be “too busy” to frequent the doctor for routine visits such as health screenings that they themselves would outline for their own patients. Chronic diseases with courses that can be either modified or entirely prevented can thus go unnoticed for many years, causing irreparable damage; for example, undiagnosed hypertension or hypercholesterolemia leading to cardiovascular disease or stroke. In addition, there are increasing data suggesting that psychological distress and burnout are common among physicians and other health care providers. Approximately 45% to 70% of residents report burnout during training ^{1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)}.