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Study: 15% of med students report thoughts of suicide

A recent study reports on how medical students cope with mental health, relationships, and sleep during school.
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Healthcare comes with its share of mental challenges, especially considering that clinicians often care for patients when they’re in difficult and sometimes tragic situations. New research shows that even the path to getting into the workforce can be a challenge, with some physicians burning out before they make it to graduation.

Medical students face many stressors, from long hours to finances to academic pressures. Last week, MedScape published a study that put some data to these stories, focusing on student relationships, health habits, and mental health. The study included 738 participants around the US and was conducted from March 25 to June 11.

The study found that 15% of students reported having thoughts of suicide at some point during their med school experience. About 35% of students reported feeling depressed “sometimes,” while 16% reported feeling depressed “frequently.”

Burnout was also a major challenge among students: nearly 30% reported that they felt it “frequently” during med school and 56% attributed their burnout to school.

When asked how often med students see their friends, nearly half answered “sometimes” and almost a quarter said “rarely.” One student wrote in a response that “maintaining friendships is difficult during clinical years. Any free time I have, I just want to sleep.”

The research found that while 67% of medical students get six to seven hours of sleep per night, 20% get only four to five hours. And though almost half reported that they exercise 2–3x per week, 22% reported that they exercised once per week or less.

Similar difficulties were reported in dating, with 59% reporting that it was “difficult.” One student said, “I was so stressed with school, I didn’t have the energy to devote to relationships. I felt I had to prioritize my education.”

Navigate the healthcare industry

Healthcare Brew covers pharmaceutical developments, health startups, the latest tech, and how it impacts hospitals and providers to keep administrators and providers informed.