Doctors should brush up on their Shakespeare to become better physicians, a unique study proposes.

Dr. Kenneth Heaton, a retired doctor and scholar says modern physicians will benefit from reading William Shakespeare's classic works to get a better understanding of the mind-body connection. Shakespeare was a master at describing how the emotional upset of his characters connected with physical symptoms. Heaton analyzed 42 of the bard's major works and 46 works of Shakespeare's contemporaries.

Heaton who studied Shakespeare after retiring from his post as a gastroenterologist, found that Shakespeare was unique in his linking of physical symptoms and medical distress. He analyzed instances where Shakespeare described real symptoms such as dizziness or faintness, blunted or heightened sensitivity to touch and pain was more common in his works than in other authors of the time.

Notable examples include vertigo, giddiness and dizziness expressed by five male characters in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew", "Henry Vi part 1", "Romeo and Juliet", "Cymbeline and Troilus and Cressida".

There are at least eleven instances of breathlessness linked with extreme emotion in "The Rape of Lucrece", "Venus and Adonis", "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "Troilus and Cressida".

Grief or distress is described with symptoms of fatigue and weariness in works such as "Hamlet", "As You Like It", "Richard III", "The Merchant of Venice" and "Henry IV part 2".

Shakespeare uses the term "disturbed" during times of high emotion in "Richard II", "King Lear" and "King John". Meanwhile coldness and faintness are symptomatic of deep shock occur in "Romeo and Juliet", "Julius Caesar", "Richard III" and elsewhere. Dr. Heaton found at least 43 references to physical problems caused by psychological stress in Shakespeare's works.

Doctors can benefit from studying Shakespeare so that they can diagnose patients whose physical symptoms could be caused by deeper psychological problems. Modern medicine is reluctant to attribute physical symptoms to emotional disturbance which could lead to delayed diagnoses and unnecessary tests and treatments.

"They could learn to be better doctors by studying Shakespeare," he said. "This is important because the so-called functional symptoms are the leading cause of general practitioner visits and of referrals to specialists."

The study is published in the Journal of Medical Humanities.