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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: From physically taxing work hours to emotionally burdensome responsibilities, physicians are exposed to many occupational stressors on a daily basis. These stressors have a negative impact on their mental health and can also affect their delivery of patient care. This study aimed to explore the relationship between suicidality, psychopathology, and psychosocial correlates among physicians in Taiwan.
METHODS: A cross-sectional, nationwide census was conducted to investigate the mental health of physicians in Taiwan. Participants were comprised of 4,603 respondents who completed a series of questionnaires, which were comprised of demographic profiles, the Maudsley Personality Inventory-Neuroticism Scale, the Physician's Job Stress Questionnaire, the Occupational Burnout Inventory, and the Five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale, all of which had good internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha 0.89-0.97). The post-stratification weighting method was used to obtain a nationally representative sample of physicians. Chi-squared tests were used to examine differences in the level of suicidal ideation and psychological distress between age and gender groups, practice institutes, and specialties; Pearson's correlation to analyze the association among neuroticism, occupational stress, burnout, and mental health variables; stepwise multiple regression to examine the association between suicidal ideation and various domains of psychological distress and neuroticism. Moreover, the path analysis was performed to examine the predictive validity of the above psychosocial correlates for suicidal ideation and to test the model's goodness-of-fit.
RESULTS: Among the total participants, the prevalence of suicidal ideation and psychiatric morbidity was 13.90% (95% C.I.: 13.90%-13.90%) and 43.42% (95% CI: 43.42%-43.42%), respectively. The younger physicians had more severe psychological distress than their older counterparts. Physicians who practiced in medical institutions of a higher accreditation tended to have more mental distress. The severity of suicidal ideation seemed to follow the same trend as the BSRS-5 among different age groups of physicians. The Five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale total score and individual items were positively associated with suicidal ideation. Even after adjusting for neuroticism, the effects of each symptom item remained significant. Lastly, neuroticism, depression, and inferiority had a significant direct effect on suicidal ideation, while neuroticism, job stress, burnout, and depression had a significant indirect effect on suicidal ideation.
CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated the link between neurotic personality traits, job stress, burnout, psychopathologies, and suicidal ideation. Therefore, promoting early stress management techniques and increasing self-awareness of mental distress are crucial during medical students' education. Physicians' suicidal ideation was related to their age, specialty, and hospital hierarchy. Thus, the future direction should aim at developing specific stress management strategies for physicians in different hospital layers.
Language: zh |