Physician well-being, mental health ‘remains a very real concern’

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Physician well-being remains problematic across health care, according to the 2025 Survey of America’s Physicians by The Physicians Foundation.

The survey of 1,003 doctors included responses from 405 primary care physicians and 598 specialists. In the results, 57% reported inappropriate feelings of anger, tearfulness or anxiety in the last year, while 46% said they withdrew from family, friends and co-workers. Both results were up from 2024, as was the 34% reporting feelings of hopelessness or being without purpose.

“I think optimizing our physicians’ mental health remains a very real concern,” Foundation President Gary Price, MD, MBA, told Medical Economics. The 2025 results were published Sept. 17, which also is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day. The Physicians Foundation and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation have been leading sponsors of the day for awareness, with the ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare, a coalition of organizations dedicated to health and wellness of the health care workforce.

What do the results mean?

Gary Price, MD, MBA
_{© The Physicians Foundation}

The most recent survey revealed that symptoms of unhealthy stress levels are trending back to levels that the Foundation leadership had not seen since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in spite of the fact that the 2024 survey revealed they were beginning to ease somewhat, Price said.

“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,” he said. “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.”

In 2024, it appeared indicators about physician well-being were starting to ease as the COVID-19 pandemic slipped back in the rearview mirror, so to speak, Price said. But in 2025, the emotional symptoms of undue stress increased year to year, although burnout decreased slightly.

“And obviously one has to ask, how do you make sense of that?” Price said.

Emotional and mental health, and workplace burnout, are different conditions; both affect the quality of physicians’ work, and they may overlap. It appeared there could be two separate but related trends happening, he said.

Changing the workplace

In the 2025 survey, 54% of physicians reported they often have feelings of burnout. That is down from 60% last year.

Instead of medications or therapy for burnout, the solution is to change the work environment causing it. There has been a lot of attention and research to burnout in the health care workplace, and physicians and lower- to mid-level administrators are becoming aware of it and its effects on patient care, Price said.

“That's also beginning to be seen in the fact that our physician workforce perceives that someone is concerned about that and wants to make it better,” Price said. “It wouldn't be surprising in the face of that, that burnout levels started to ease somewhat, and they did. It wasn't by a great deal, but at least in the right direction.”

Despite improvements, burnout levels remain higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, burnout levels present in more than 40% of physicians was a terrible figure at a crisis point, Price said.

“So we certainly can't rest on our laurels and think we've really done something meaningful yet about burnout. There's a lot of work left to do,” he said.

Stressful work conditions

In the past year, there have been changes in conditions that have strained the physician workforce.

More physicians than ever are working in environments where they are employees, not independent practitioners. That can be a major stressor as doctors deal with workplace conditions they are not used to, Price said.

“Inherent to moving into a corporate environment is giving up some autonomy, perhaps a lot, depending on the situation,” Price said. “But feeling that one's in control of one's work and the output of one's work is crucial to the syndrome of burnout, in that a feeling of no longer having any control there and yet still being held responsible is a key aspect of burnout.

“So it's pretty easy to see how a corporate environment might be a likely cause of some of the increase, certainly in stress, even though we haven't seen the result in burnout yet,” he said. “Although burnout is more of a chronic condition, it doesn't arise overnight.”

The nation’s political administration has changed and some new regulations and policies look like they could affect physician reimbursement. Physicians also are dealing with a continuing buildup of medical misinformation and disinformation on health care issues, which The Physicians Foundation showed in another survey earlier this year.

“The ultimate result, though, of increased and ongoing stress, I can't help but believe will be more burnout, and we're very concerned about that,” Price said.

Seeking help

Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP
_{© Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation}

Among the findings, 73% of respondents agreed there still is professional stigma surrounding pursuit of mental health care among physicians. That was down from eight in 10 in 2024.

“Physicians are beginning to feel the impact of changes designed to support their mental health, and it’s encouraging to see signs that burnout is easing,” said Stefanie Simmons, MD, FACEP, chief medical officer at the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation. “At the same time, the surge in stress and anxiety to near‑pandemic levels this year is an urgent warning: We must double down on systemic reforms that reduce administrative burden, ensure confidential, stigma‑free access to mental health care and foster practice environments that truly prioritize clinician well-being.

“When we sustain these changes, we not only protect our physicians — we strengthen patient access and improve the quality of care across our health care system,” she said.