Sources of conflict in the life of married physicians

Abstract

Studies of “medical marriages” abroad have suggested that while many physicians and spouses report unhappy marriages, they tend to stay in their marriages rather than to divorce and look for new partners. The lack of leisure time and the time pressures of work presented the biggest source of stress cited in the literature. Too many patients to see in too short a time, too large a case load, and too much time on call were mentioned repeatedly. The physician’s tendency to work long hours leaves little time for interaction with his or her spouse. However, despite the popularity of this explanation, studies have consistently failed to find any correlation between long hours of work and either unhappy marriage or divorce.

There have been no local studies on the lives of married physicians. It was decided to replicate a descriptive study done by Menninger et al, in the hope of helping colleagues in the medical profession who have been increasingly seeking marital counseling. There is a need to obtain a more thorough understanding of marital unhappiness in the medical marriage. This study further aims to determine the factors that contribute to discord in the physician’s marriage.