Magnitude of stress among medical practitioners

It has been observed that the medical practitioners are becoming excessively vulnerable to the stress which affects the general health and the mental health in particular. In order to assess the magnitude of stress and its resulting complications, a study was conducted with the help of 150 doctors from all five districts of Karachi through random selection (lottery method) who were given questionnaires to fill-in and were interviewed in the second stage. Of the respondants (n= 143) 55% of the doctors were highly stressed because of academic, work and financial challenges with bleak hope for future prospects, 35% were stressed because of dealing with patients and relatives while the remaining number of doctors were stressed because of time, family and other factors. It was concluded that the magnitude of stress has reached alarming proportion and there is a need to take steps towards reducing stress factors.