Physician mental health care in 2025: stigma and new paths to wellness

What is the state of mental health care for physicians as of summer and autumn 2025?

This year, Medical Economics has spoken with five physician experts who shared their insights on hurdles to mental health, and ways to overcome those.

Robert G.G. Piccinini, DO, D.FACN, is current president of the American Osteopathic Association. A practicing psychiatrist, he has evaluated more than 10,000 suicide attempts in his career.

Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, MD, MBA, an anesthesiologist, is co-founder and president of The Emotional PPD Project. Christine Yu Moutier, MD, is chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She, Saddawi-Konefka and former American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, are co-authors of “Reducing Barriers to Mental Health Care for Physicians: An Overview and Strategic Recommendations,” a special communication published in JAMA.

Gary Price, MD, MBA, is president of The Physicians Foundation. In September 2025, the Foundation published its “2025 Survey of America’s Physicians: Physician Wellness.”

Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP, is chief medical officer of The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, which has grown to become a national advocate for the health and well-being of physicians and other clinicians.

This transcript has been edited lightly for style and flow.

How would you describe the current state of mental health for physicians?

Robert G.G. Piccinini, DO, D.FACN: The current state I think, I would say, is not that great. You know, I don't know how else to say it — it's not that great.

Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, MD, MBA: On a personal note, I serve as the program director for the anesthesiology at Mass General. And I've seen firsthand how mental health conditions get ignored or sort of framed as just a phase, something that'll pass. I see how it gets in this in the way of performance and well-being, and then more personally, I've lost colleagues and mentees to suicide, and seeing these barriers and this treatment gap became something that was very personal and something that I felt we really ought to be able to improve.

Christine Yu Moutier, MD: Certainly, in this kind of post-COVID era, the mental health of physicians and other health workers as well could not be of more importance, still. We're not over, and we always had said during COVID that the effects of this pandemic are going to be felt in terms of a mental health kind of repercussion for a long time to come. And I think, whether you frame it in terms of COVID or other things, we're still definitely in the thick of it.

The Physicians Foundation has surveyed doctors in recent years about their feelings of mental health, mental distress, and workplace conditions.

Gary Price, MD, MBA: Our most recent survey this year reveals that symptoms of unhealthy stress levels are trending back to levels that we had not seen since the height of the COVID pandemic, in spite of the fact that last year our survey revealed they were beginning to ease somewhat. This is very worrisome in light of the continuing stigma that physicians continue to associate with seeking mental health care, and the additional barriers they face in getting that care.

The Physicians Foundation survey revealed in the last year, 46% of physicians withdrew from family, friends and co-workers and 57% of physicians said they experienced inappropriate feelings of anger, tearfulness or anxiety.

Gary Price, MD, MBA: It's also significant in the very real impact that their emotional well-being has on burnout levels, the access to care patients have, the quality of the care they receive, and ultimately the cost of that care.

One of the causes of mental distress existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors care for their patients — truly care. That medical connection can lead to a real emotional connection.

Robert G.G. Piccinini, DO, D.FACN: Medical Economics speaks a lot to primary care doctors. Well, you may have a patient who has been a patient of yours for 20,30, maybe even a longer amount of years. They are your patient, but they become a part of you. You know their stories, frontwards, backwards and sideways, and when they pass that's going to take a hit on you emotionally. I don't know any physician who it doesn't.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians face yet another cause of stress: the changing nature of health care.

Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP: Health care workers are very mission driven to care for patients, to take care of our communities. And so as we, as we work to do our best to care for our patients and communities, there's just a tremendous amount of turmoil and change. In addition, there is a large amount of administrative tasks and administrative burden that health care workers face when caring for patients. And so we find ourselves torn in our time and our efforts between caring for patients and caring for the sort of administrativa of the of the work in terms of charting, documentation, billing and trying to navigate the complex payer and regulatory environment.

Whether dealing with feelings of workplace burnout, or clinical forms of mental health distress, why don’t more doctors seek help?

Daniel Saddawi-Konefka, MD, MBA: We know that fear of stigma, the desire for confidentiality increases substantially even during med school. Med students come in with only about 30% of them being worried about the fear of stigma becomes over half of them by the time they finish training. So it is a really important thing.

This year’s Physicians Foundation survey noted a slight decrease in the perception of stigma around seeking mental health. Even so, 73% of doctors said it remains part of the culture of medicine.

Gary Price, MD, MBA: Physicians who may need help are really reluctant to seek it because of a long-standing stigma about that. And the problem with that is it implies to the physician getting their license that should they report they have a need for mental health care or seek it, that their license might be in danger, even though they're in no way impaired from taking care of someone. And it also encourages them not to be totally honest when they fill out the licensure application for fear of not getting a license, and then they never, ever want to talk about it again.

What are some signs of progress?

Recent years have seen increased awareness of the barriers to physicians seeking mental health care. The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation has become a national leader in the movement.

Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP: We are happy to be able to announce that we now have 37 state medical boards who have eliminated invasive and stigmatizing language around mental health from their applications, as well as multiple pharmacy, nursing and dentistry boards, and that we've been able to verify over 10% of hospitals in the country now have removed this invasive and stigmatizing language from their credentialing recredentialing and peer reference forms.

Cristine Yu Moutier, MD: I really think this is one of the linchpins of that is changing, thankfully and must change in order for stigma to actually have a chance at really coming down more dramatically. Now the laws changing and the questions that physicians and nurses are being asked on licensure forms and recertification forms are really critically important to treat mental health just like physical health, not make assumptions of impairment. The questions should either not be there at all or they should center around impairment related to any health cause, and rather than singling out mental health because there's really some loaded assumptions built in there.

The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation has promoted the Impact Wellbeing Guide, published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP: The Impact Wellbeing Guide was one of two major outputs from the original authorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protector Act that was signed into law in 2022. The Impact Wellbeing Guide was a leader guide on what you can do in your hospital or health system to positively impact the professional well-being of the workplace.

Health care workers also can help each other. The Physicians Foundation survey found three in 10 respondents have checked in with a colleague who they suspected was experiencing mental health distress.

Gary Price, MD, MBA: I think the fact that three out of 10 physicians have taken the time to ask a colleague how they're doing, and really meant it really wanted a response, is great. We know that support from one's peers and feeling like it's safe to discuss emotional states, stressful feelings, a feeling that you might need help — we know that that's healthy and it's critical. We know that there are a lot of barriers to getting physicians to do that.

That leads to the need to change peer reference forms, another element that could make it easier for physicians and other clinicians to seek the mental health help they need.

Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP: Peer support is really one of the most effective and impactful forms of support for health care workers. It's it can be incredibly isolating to have had a difficult case, an adverse event, a string of hard shifts, and it's really critical to be able to talk to someone else who has gone through the same thing. That's one of the reasons why revising the peer reference forms is so critical. We want a peer reference to be able to give feedback on someone's ability to practice and professionally and excellently, but we don't want to be asking our peer references about any history of depression or anxiety or mental health conditions, because those are the very peers that we need to be able to go to talk about our hardest times.