Getting a Doctorate Can Affect Your Mental Health

A new study shows doctoral programs can incite some serious psychiatric problems. Learn how getting a Ph.D. affects mental health on BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, brain stuff,
it's Christian Seger here. We all get sick of school, right.
It's a common complaint for students at large, but when
you hear a doctoral students say it, listen up. Mental
health problems are more prevalent in PhD students than in
the highly educated population in general, including highly educated employees

(00:27):
and students, according to recent research published in the journal
Research Policy. The study highlights concerns about the influence that
academic working conditions have on mental health, particularly among PhD
students in a range of disciplines. The researchers surveyed three thousand,
six hundred and fifty nine PhD students in Flanders, Belgium

(00:49):
using a General Health Questionnaire. This is a twelve question
mental health screening tool that assesses a person's well being
and potentially psychological distress in light of mental health disorders. Now,
PhD programs in Europe they're similar to those in the
US in many ways, but there are some differences, including

(01:10):
students having generally lower fees, shorter program terms, and a
formal employment contract with their universities. In Europe, the g
h Q questions focused on symptoms of depression and social dysfunction,
from constant strain and unhappiness to lack of concentration and
losing self confidence. Using the version of the g h

(01:32):
Q that requires the presence of four symptoms to consider
a person ill, the researchers found that thirty two percent
of the PhD students assessed were at risk of having
or developing a common psychiatric disorder, namely depression. Some of
the more common feelings students reported were sleeping problems due
to worries and the inability to get over difficulties and

(01:55):
enjoy everyday activities. Thirty two percent is a notable amount
considering data from the World Health Organization indicates that depression
is the leading cause of ill health and disability in
the world. And when the researchers compared the risk of
psychiatric disorders and PhD students to that of the highly

(02:17):
educated general population, highly educated employees, and high education students,
they discovered that it was significantly higher for PhD students
two point four three, two point eight four, and one
point eight five times, respectively. It's easy to think that
the heavy academic workload causes all the pressure, but the

(02:38):
researchers found that work environment and organizational policies also contribute
to psychiatric issues work family balanced difficulties, high job demands,
low job control, laser fair or passive leadership style and supervisors,
and even a team culture of closed decision making, where

(02:58):
all factors linked to potential mental health problems. On the
other hand, mental health was better in PhD students who
had advisers with an inspirational leadership style, desired an academic career,
and valued their degree outside of academia. The studies authors
aren't saying that working in academia or pursuing a doctoral

(03:20):
degree is definitively bad for your health, but their findings
do indicate that the stressors of being a PhD student
are more than a pain in the neck. If PhD
students work conditions in career outlook are inadequate, their mental
health may not make the grade. Today's episode was written

(04:00):
by Shelley Danzy, produced by Tristan McNeil, and For more
on this and other topics, please visit us at how
stuff works dot com.