29% of medical interns show signs of depression. The share of young people affected has tended to increase over the past 50 years worldwide.
Not yet doctors, and already exhausted. Depression is common among medical interns. And according to a meta-analysis of 50 years of studies, the phenomenon is global. Its authors explain in an edition dedicated to the medical studies of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that the prevalence of depressive symptoms is significantly higher than the general population among physicians in training.
Increasing over 50 years
This meta-analysis brings together 54 studies conducted in 16 countries, from the Sultanate of Oman to Brazil, including the United States and Canada. A total of 17,500 doctors trained or in the process of apprenticeship were followed between January 1963 and September 2015. Depressive symptoms were noted either by face-to-face interviews or by questionnaires. For this review of the literature, the researchers focused on the internship years, known for long working hours, low recognition and high pressure.
And if the terms of the internship may vary from country to country, one thing does not change. 29% of young doctors tested positive for signs of depression. The proportion ranges from 21 to 43% depending on the country and the measurement method.
More worrying: over the years, the proportion of professionals affected tends to increase. “The progression of depression, observed over the five decades covered by the study, is surprising and significant, particularly in light of the reforms put in place to improve the experience of interns,” said Srijan Sen, co-author of the study. meta-analysis.
More care
This result is all the more worrying as these young doctors are in direct contact with patients. However, several studies have shown that depression in a caregiver degrades the quality of care and increases the risk of medical errors. It therefore seems crucial to find a solution to this ambient, and above all global, unhappiness.
“The solutions that can be brought to this endemic can be classified into three categories, analyzes Thomas Schwenk, of the School of Medicine at the University of Nevada in Reno. in an editorial associated with the meta-analysis. Provide more mental care to trained and trainee physicians with depression, and of better quality, limit trainee’s exposure to an environment and system that contributes at least in part to a degradation of mental health and well-being , consider the possibility that the medical education system needs to be fundamentally changed. “
This last point seems particularly difficult to resolve. In France alone, medical interns represent a population of 35,000 young people over the period 2010-2014. A living force on which hospitals and practices depend.
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