Worrying levels of stress among young doctors
It affects their academic performance and, at the same time, increases the risk of substance abuse
Many doctors are depressed, drinking heavily, popping stress-relieving pills casually and are often suicidal. They need medical attention — and, urgently. More so the young ones.
In India, we have close to eight lakh allopathic medical practitioners, one of the highest in the world. They play an active part in the success or the failure of the health system, but their own mental health condition is alarming — what the Indian Medical Association calls a “public health crisis”.
Reasons for the meltdown could be many. Before they graduate , they undergo an intensive training, followed by an exhausting internship. Only a select few get an opportunity to reach post-graduate level where they negotiate an equally rigorous process that matches with an unorganised sector blue-collar job in terms of work hours and a call centre’s in its schedule. Add to that the stress of saving lives and seeing trauma from so close. Not everyone can take it. According to a survey published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, as many as 30% of doctors in India are suffering from depression, while 17% of them have even thought of committing suicide.
Another study by the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine suggests that 21% of doctors consume alcohol in higher volumes, 18% are dependent on antidepressants, 14% are heavy smokers, and doctors as well as nurses who work in the Intensive Care Unit routinely report auditory hallucinations.
Suicide has now become the second leading cause of death in 15 to 29 year olds in India and there is no significant reason the young in the medical profession would find themselves completely unscathed. Psychological morbidity — the condition of being diseased — among medical students eventually deteriorates their academic performance, and, at the same time, increases the risk of substance abuse.
The solution, however, lies in the basics. If we wish to deliver effective universal health care in the long run, we need an academic plan that not only trains the medical workforce to deliver better services but which also reforms the way we address the factors contributing to mental aliments among young doctors. Students’ psychology needs immediate attention. Mental ailment still remains a social stigma; and as surprising as it may sound, doctors find it equally hard to defy social norms — including for reasons such as doctors being seen as incapable of treating others as they are suffering from a mental health condition. We already have a low doctor to patient density — only one allopathic doctor for 1600 patients as compared to the WHO prescription of one for 1000. These are the reasons why we cannot afford to ignore the issue anymore.