One in four new doctors 'have signs of depression', study shows - and their patients may be suffering because of it

Researchers say the gruelling years of training for a medical career may be partly to blame

Previous studies have shown that doctors are at higher risk of suicide than the general population (Carl Court/Getty Images)

A quarter of doctors in the early stages of their careers have signs of depression, a new study has revealed.

Analysis of 50 years of research on depression amongst physicians also suggests that gruelling years of training may have a negative effect on wellbeing.

In the UK, doctors can train for up to 16 years before qualifying - five years on their degree (sometimes six years if study is intercalated), followed by two years on a post-graduate foundation course, and between three and eight years in specialist training.

In the US, doctors train for a similar period - four years on their degree, followed by four years at medical school, then a residency programme at hospitals or outpatients clinics lasting between three and eight years. Some doctors then go on to study for an additional one to three years on a fellowship programme, to train in specialist areas.

The report is based on an investigation of 50 years' worth of studies looking for depression symptoms in more than 17,500 medical residents in the US. It backs up research also published this week showing the extent of depressive symptoms in physicians in training is "extraordinarily high".

The report says: "Roughly a quarter to a third of physicians in training reported experiencing significant depressive symptomatology, if not overt clinical depression, at any point in time."

Previous studies have suggested that as a profession, doctors are at equal risk for depression - but higher risk of suicide than the general population.

The latest research, which appears in the new issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, was led by a team comprising a current resident at Harvard and a University of Michigan Medical School psychiatrist who specialises in studying physician mental health, Science Daily reports.

The team looked at two main questions: What percentage of new doctors might be depressed, and how much does that change over time?

They collected and combined the data from 54 studies done around the world, and found that 28.8 per cent of physicians-in-training have signs of depression. These rates have increased slightly but significantly over 50 years.

"The increase in depression is surprising and important, especially in light of reforms that have been implemented over the years with the intent of improving the mental health of residents and the health of patients," said Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the new study and a member of U-M's Depression Center, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute.

Mr Sen, who worked with the study's lead author, Douglas Mata, M.D., M.P.H., of Harvard University, to analyse the studies, focused on the post-medical school training years of internship and residency in America. Those years, Science Daily reports, are marked by long hours, intensive on-the-job learning, low rank and a high level of responsibility for minute-to-minute patient 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," Mr Mata concluded.