Depression and Med Student

Apparently, it is a big problem. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals some interesting, if not alarming, statistics:

" Medical students are more prone to depression than their nonmedical peers. Researchers recently surveyed first and second years medical students at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and found that about one fourth were depressed..."

" Laurie Raymond, a psychiatrist and the director of the Office of Advising Resources at Harvard Medical School [HMS] in Boston, said that she med individually with 208 medical students--about one quarter of the student body--between July 2003 and July 2005. Thirty-one students (15 percent) presented with self described depression-- 20 of them with transient, "reactive" depressed mood that improved with supportive counseling or therapy and 11 who had a history of major depression..." Some rough breakdown of the data in 322 students who responded to a questionaire and were later classified as either depressed (include all ranges of depression)or not depressed. Disclaimer: these data didn't come with p values or margins of error, so take it with a huge grain of salt:

*More Female than Male were classified as being depressed (18 vs 15%)
*More Hispanic, followed by Asian, White, and then Black were classifed as being depressed.
*More first and second years student were classified as being depressed than 3rd and 4th years
* More Homosexual/bisexual were classifed as being more depressed than heterosexual in their respective groupings
* More students with a history of depression prior to medical school were classified as being depressed than students without a history of depression prior to medical school

Among the hypothethized reasons for why being a medical student increases the risk of depression, the article cites Laurie Raymond saying " students see themselves going into a very narrow tunnel...a lot of the depression we see halfway through the [first] year--it's a reaction to having constricted themsevles down to studying these subjects in a very intense way. It's pretty unidimensional." Apparently as well, " all medical students aren't sleeping," concluded psychiatrist and dean of students at Northwestern U. Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, "They are overwhelmed, they are working hard, and they aren't having fun socially....of course they are fatigued."

If you're interested in the article, check it out in the New England Journal of Medicine: Rosenthal, Julie M. Okie, Susan. "White Coat, Mood Indigo--Depression in Medical School." N Engl J Med 353;11. September 15, 2005.

Personally, I'm getting more sleep in Med school than I ever did in college (7-8 hrs daily now, as opposed to 5-6 hrs). I'm having fun socially (albeit with my college friends most of the time, but the med school crowd ain't so bad), and I'm going to start taking a studio/art criticism class at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts tomorrow--something I never found the time to do while at college. Med classes meanwhile, are going extremely well.

Let's hope it stays this way.