The role of the family physician in the crisis of impending divorce.

The divorce rate in the United States is approaching 30 to 40 percent. Because the family physician cares for the entire family, he often finds himself in the midst of the turmoil created by the crisis of impending divorce. Using a case presentation, we have offered some specific suggestions to help the family physician manage this common problem. Few traditional training programs have adequately prepared the primary physician to be effective in marriage counseling. The integration of the behavioral sciences with the medical sciences should be a major goal of the developing discipline of family medicine. If training programs in family medicine successfully develop curricula that teach the skills required to support a troubled marriage, the family physician of the future may make a more significant contribution towards the preservation of the nuclear family.