Eneroth M et al., 2014 [8]

A comparison of risk and protective factors related to suicide ideation among residents and specialists in academic medicine.

234 residents and 813 specialists working at a university hospital

The aim of the study is to investigate the

possible correlates of suicide ideation among university

hospital resident and specialist physicians separately

Logistic regression analysis showed that having supportive meetings was associated with lower level of suicidal ideation among specialists, while an empowering leadership was related to a lower level of suicidal ideation among residents. Having been harassed at work was associated with suicidal ideation among specialists. In addition, sickness presenteeism and work disengagement were associated with suicidal ideation in both groups of physicians.

MEDLINE/ PubMed

Analysis stratified by gender is called for in continued research on suicidal ideation among university hospital physicians. This study was based on cross-sectional data. The possibility of making causal interpretations of the findings is therefore limited. Data on result, work and health-related variables were all obtained from the same questionnaire. Furthermore, extensive communication on suicide thoughts among physicians seemed unlikely to happen due to the stigmatization associated with mental illness.

Dyrbye LN et al., 2014 [34]

Burnout among USA medical students, residents, and early career physicians relative to the general USA population

26,760 medical students and 20,475 residents/fellows in all specialty fields

The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of “burnout” and other forms of distress across career stages and the experiences of trainees and early career physicians versus college undergraduates of similarly age pursuing other careers.

Training seems to be the peak for stress among physicians, but differences in the prevalence of burnout, depressing symptoms, and recent suicidal ideation is relatively small. At each stage, burnout is more prevalent among physicians than among the general population of the USA.

MEDLINE/ PubMed

In comparison with response rates from other national survey studies of physicians and Medicine students, only 23% to 35% received an invitation to take part in this study. It was not possible to determine if the level of difficulty among non-responders was different due to age, gender or specialty.