BOSTON, MA - Physicians in training experience higher rates of depression when compared with the general public. However, the estimated prevalence of this disorder among resident physicians has varied substantially between studies. New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) finds that 28.8 percent of trainees screen positive for depression during their residency. The findings are published in the December 8 issue of JAMA.
"These findings highlight an important issue in graduate medical education," said corresponding author Douglas A. Mata, MD, MPH, a resident physician in pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School. "The prevalence of depression is much higher than in the general population."
Researchers conducted a meta-analysis involving fifty-four studies including 17,560 physicians in training that assessed for depressive symptoms, and were published in the peer-reviewed literature between January 1963 and September 2015. The researchers noted that their findings were similar across specialties and countries, suggesting that the underlying causes of depression were common to the residency experience.
"The increase in depression, found over the five decades covered by the study, is surprising and important, especially in light of reforms implemented to improve the residency experience," said co-author Srijan Sen, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist and epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.
The development of depression in early adulthood has been shown to increases the risk of future episodes of depression and other medical illnesses, most notably heart attacks and strokes. These findings indicate that the long-term health of resident doctors may be at risk. Depression among residents also affects patients, as previous research has established links between physician depression and lower quality care.
"Our findings provide a more accurate measure of the prevalence of depression in this group, and we hope that they will focus attention on factors that may negatively affect the mental health of young doctors, with the goal of identifying strategies to prevent and treat depression among graduate medical trainees," Mata said.
Source: Brigham and Women's Hospital