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Stress, Illness, and the Physician
David A. McKay, MD, MPH
Arch Fam Med. 1995;4(6):497-498.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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THE NOTION that stress can lead to illness seems a well-established part of contemporary conventional wisdom. Patients commonly speak of stress as a cause of their medical problems; a Gallup poll of New York workers found 25% reporting "stress-linked" illness (Wall Street Journal. October 20, 1988:B2). Presently practicing physicians have come of age medically amidst frequent discussion of psychosomatic illness and the need for a "biopsychosocial model" of disease.1 Thus, few readers will be surprised by the report by Parkerson and colleagues2 in the March issue of the ARCHIVES that persons with high levels of perceived stress in their families subsequently had more severe illness and used more medical services than others. Their study nonetheless stimulates our thinking about the amibiguities in the stress-illness association and serves to remind us of our need as physicians to deal more effectively with this dimension in medical care.
The literature regarding
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
Author Affiliations
San Jose, Calif
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