Practicing medicine is bad for your health.

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Mounting evidence shows that stress-related burnout is a significant and growing threat for doctors — and their patients. If there is a silver lining, it is that the medical community is beginning to acknowledge and address the complex factors at play, recognizing that good health care must include caring for caregivers.

Numerous studies reveal that physician burnout — generally defined as a loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism and a low sense of personal accomplishment — is a major problem.

A Medscape survey found that 51 percent of doctors surveyed in 2016 said they experienced burnout, an increase of more than 25 percent since 2013. This dovetails with a 2015 paper published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings that reported a burnout rate of 54.4 percent in 2014, up from 45.5 percent in 2011.

It is a phenomenon found across all specialties in medicine, regardless of stress levels or time demands. For physicians, burnout rates are almost twice as high as those found in the general population.

A 2015 Mayo Clinic study reported that roughly 40 percent of physicians suffer depression each year and almost 7 percent had considered suicide within the prior 12 months. It is estimated that 300 to 400 doctors take their lives every year.

The pain and suffering those statistics only hint at is bad enough. But they are compounded by findings that burnout corrodes the doctor-patient relationship, resulting in lower levels of patient satisfaction, job satisfaction and productivity, as well as higher levels of medical errors and disruptive behavior.

Burnout is also connected to the decision to switch jobs or leave medicine altogether — an ominous trend as the U.S. experiences a growing doctor shortage.

There is no single cause of burnout, but long workdays contribute. Doctors work an average of 50 hours per week, 10 more than most other Americans. Other major contributing factors include the pressures caused by student debt (the average medical student owes about $190,000 in loans upon graduation); an inability to accomplish obligations outside of medicine; and the frustration that results from an inability to spend uninterrupted time with loved ones.

The challenges of balancing work-home obligations take a special toll on female doctors, whose burnout rates are twice as high as those of their colleagues, making them more likely to leave the profession.