Objective: When physicians confront a personal illness of a
serious nature, they may discover that the transition to the sick role is
challenging, and the inability to relinquish their stethoscope may cause
undo anxiety. The physician–patient relationship is intrinsically
asymmetrical, and the role of the physician is to regulate the amount of
information patients need in order to become educated about their illness
and to make informed decisions about their treatment plan. This article
explores the challenges in the physician–patient relationship when
the patient is also a physician.
Methods: This article is a literature review of publications
involving the unique challenges physician–patients experience when
suffering from serious personal illness.
Results: The medical knowledge physician–patients
harbor has the potential to complicate their ability to cope with
difficult or terminal diagnoses. Paradoxically, knowledge about a
condition may fuel anxiety instead of alleviating the fear associated with
the unknown. Medical knowledge therefore may entail a certain loss of
innocence, and physicians are often unable to revert to being
“mere” patients. Furthermore, managing this anxiety in
physician–patients may prove to be challenging to the treating
physician.
Significance of results: From a medical perspective,
physician–patients need to be addressed like any other patient.
Psychologically, however, these patients are unique, and the specific
challenges their education and experience bring into the consultation room
needs to be explicitly addressed.
