In Brief

Study Examines Doctors' Reactions to Death

When a doctor cares for a patient for a long time, that doctor is vulnerable to feelings of loss when the patient dies. But doctors often suffer these emotions in silence, according to a study by Pitt researchers published this summer in BMJ, the British medical journal.

Previous studies have shown that younger and less experienced physicians often feel sadness and even guilt over the death of a patient. The Pitt researchers, with investigators from Harvard Medical School, looked at variables, including levels of training, that affect physicians' responses to the death of a patient.

"Physicians form bonds with their patients, and when a patient dies, the physician is going to have some emotions surface," said investigator and senior author Robert M. Arnold, the Leo H. Criep Chair in Patient Care at Pitt.

The study says that facing death should be part of a medical education. "Today's medical education system does not address this important issue," said Arnold, who is a professor of medicine and chief of the Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics in Pitt's School of Medicine. "I worry that this may be partly responsible for the high rate of burnout among physicians."