The objective of this systematic literature review was to identify the main diseases that affect physicians worldwide, through an electronic survey in the Virtual Health Library (BVS) database based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and MetaAnalyses (Prisma) methodology. We analyzed 57 of the 374 scientific papers published on this subject between 2005 and 2015 in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. The findings showed that mental affections prevailed, highlighting the occupational exhaustion (burnout syndrome). Among the physical ailments, musculoskeletal affections prevailed.KEYWORDS Occupational diseases. Burnout, professional. Occupational health. RESUMO O objetivo desta revisão sistemática da literatura foi de identificar as principais doenças que acometem os médicos em todo o mundo, mediante uma pesquisa eletrônica na base de dados Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS) baseada na metodologia Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Prisma