Rates of Burnout, Depression, Suicide, and Substance Use Disorders

The effects of becoming a physician on prescription drug use and mental health treatment

“…Specifically, the estimated effects of becoming a physician on antidepressant, anxiolytic, and sedative use are all much larger for female, as opposed to male, medical school applicants. This pattern of results is consistent with descriptions of female physicians being at elevated risk for depression and SUD because they are being exposed to on-the-job sex-based harassment and are under added pressure to balance professional and family responsibilities (Frank et al 1998b;Merlo and Gold 2008;Wallace et al 2009;Jenner et al 2019;Stageberg et al 2020). Prior research suggests that systemic modifications to alleviate work-life conflict may disproportionally benefit female physicians (Guille et al 2017).…”

“…"Job burnout" is a common syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion and feelings of diminished personal accomplishment (Cordes and Dougherty 1993). Among physicians, burnout, depression, and SUD are closely linked (Worm et al 2016;Rotenstein et al 2018;Stageberg et al 2020), although it is difficult to assess the overall prevalence of burnout among physicians due to fundamental cross-study differences in how it is measured (Rotenstein et al 2018;Verougstraete and Idrissi 2019). 12 As noted above, the adoption of electronic health records is associated with an increased risk of burnout among physicians (Ehrenfeld and Wanderer 2018).…”

“…Although physically healthy, there is evidence that physicians disproportionately suffer from substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health problems. Ten to 15 percent of physicians will misuse alcohol or prescription drugs during their career (Baldisseri 2007;Vayr et al 2019); more than 20 percent of physicians are depressed or exhibit the symptoms of depression (Mata et al 2015;Rotenstein et al 2018, eTable 24); and at least one third of physicians describe themselves as suffering from "job burnout" (Drummond 2015), a syndrome closely linked to SUD and depression (Bianchi et al 2015;Schonfeld and Bianchi 2016;Wurm et al 2016;Stageberg et al 2020).…”

“…Female physicians are described in the medical literature as being at risk for SUD and depression, possibly because of on-the-job sex-based harassment or added pressure to balance professional and family responsibilities (Frank et al 1998b;Merlo and Gold 2008;Wallace et al 2009;Guille et al 2017;Jenner et al 2019;Stageberg et al 2020). 2 Restricting the sample to female applicants, the IV estimates are generally large, positive, and measured with precision across all prescription drug categories.…”

The Effects of Becoming a Physician on Prescription Drug Use and Mental Health Treatment

“…"Job burnout" is a common syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion and feelings of diminished personal accomplishment (Cordes and Dougherty 1993). Among physicians, burnout, depression, and SUD are closely linked (Worm et al 2016;Rotenstein et al 2018;Stageberg et al 2020), although it is difficult to assess the overall prevalence of burnout among physicians due to fundamental cross-study differences in how it is measured (Rotenstein et al 2018;Verougstraete and Idrissi 2019). 12 As noted above, the adoption of electronic health records is associated with an increased risk of burnout among physicians (Ehrenfeld and Wanderer 2018).…”