Burnout, suicide haunt medics

Burnout, lifestyle diseases, and even suicide are claiming the lives of doctors in Pakistan, with fewer than 10% staying physically active, experts warned on Thursday.

Physicians are dying younger due to lifestyle-related illnesses, extreme burnout, and, in some cases, suicide, as they neglect their own health while caring for others, senior cardiologists and mental health specialists said.

Data presented at Life in a Metro, a nationwide academic forum organised under Mediverse, an initiative by Hudson Pharma, showed that nearly six out of ten physicians experience significant burnout, while suicide rates among doctors are almost double those of the general population.

Yet only about one-third seek professional help. Addressing the forum, Dr M Rehan Omer Siddiqi, an interventional cardiologist and internal medicine specialist, said physician burnout has quietly reached crisis levels in Pakistan.

Drawing on regional and international evidence, he noted that long working hours, chronic sleep deprivation, poor diet, physical inactivity, and constant psychological pressure are driving doctors toward early heart disease, diabetes, depression, and substance misuse.