Work-Family Conflict Fuels Physician Burnout. (Major Stressors).

MORAN, Wyo. - New insights into the toll on psychological health exacted by work-family conflict hold vital lessons for workaholism-prone physicians, Wayne M. Sotile, Ph.D., said at a conference sponsored by the American College of Cardiology.

Physicians cite work-family conflict as one of a handful of major stressors. These stressors contribute to the recent unprecedented high rates of physician disability claims and burnout.

"You used to walk on your lips through cut glass until you were 92 to keep practicing medicine. That's no longer the case. You're no longer inappropriately denying disability," observed Dr. Sotile, who is the director of psychological services for the cardiac rehabiliation program at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Dr. Sotile and his wife, Mary Sotile, have a national practice specializing in counseling troubled physicians and medical groups.

Together they have written four books on the subject, the most recent of which is entitled, "The Resilient Physician: Effective Emotional Management for Doctors and Their Medical Organizations" (Chicago: American Medical Association Press, 2000).

Busy physicians are particularly vulnerable to work-family conflict, which looms large as a factor in both divorce and job dissatisfaction. And there is now good evidence that work-family conflict is associated with unhappiness of another sort: People who report frequent work-family conflict are at sharply higher risk of serious psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Sotile cited a recent study by Michael R. Frone, Ph.D., of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who analyzed data on a nationally representative sample of 2,700 employed adult family men and women.