Around one in every five UK medical students is considering dropping out, with mental health a ‘key contributor’, a new study has suggested.
The observational study, published in BMJ Open, is based on an initial survey of just under 800 medical students from across the UK between November 2020 and February 2021, and a follow-up survey of around 400 students three months later.
It found that 19.5% of medical students said they had considered dropping out of medical school in the previous four weeks, while one in three (36%) were emotionally exhausted.
Overall, the researchers concluded that the prevalence of mental ill health among all the respondents was high, as a ‘substantial number of medical students met screening criteria for mental health’.
Issues such as anxiety and depression, insomnia, and paranoia were all ‘associated with an intention to abandon their studies’, the study suggested.
The researchers pointed out that the percentage of those who said they were considering dropping out is higher than the actual estimate percentage of 5%, but they acknowledged that ‘intention may not always translate into action’.
They called on medical schools to improve the learning environment for students and to encourage them to seek help to reduce the stigma of mental health symptoms.
‘The various mental health symptoms that have been found to predict dropout are particularly difficult to recognise in medical students, due to the “toxic” and competitive work culture of medical school normalising the idea of individuals experiencing them,’ the researchers said.
They also suggested that students who graduate medical school ‘doubting their career trajectory may be more inclined to drop out of postgraduate training’, with the percentage of doctors who pause their training after completing foundation years having jumped from 34% in 2011/12 to 70% in 2020/21.
Other findings
- Six in 10 medical students were drinking hazardously;
- Over half (54%) reported symptoms of insomnia;
- 52% reported a medium to very high number of somatic symptoms;
- 52% had symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder;
- Nearly half (45%) had anorectic tendences;
- Four out of 10 (38%) had symptoms of anxiety/depression;
- One in five (19.5%) had symptoms of paranoia;
- 3% had bipolar symptoms.
Source: BMJ Open
In response, the BMA said these ‘worrying findings’ align with what they hear from medical students ‘every day’.
Ria Bansal and Akshata Valsangkar, welfare deputy chairs on the BMA’s medical students committee, said: ‘No one should feel so stressed, and under such great pressure from studying to be a doctor that they experience serious symptoms of poor mental health.’
They pointed to their own recent survey results, published last week, which showed that financial support for medical students’ living costs is ‘so insufficient that over half of students had been forced t ocut back on spending on essentials such as food or heating’.
The welfare deputy chairs continued: ‘These astonishing and unmanageable pressures that we’re putting medical students under are completely unnecessary.
‘With straightforward changes to medical student funding, and with more psychological support from medical schools we could turn this situation on its head, and give medical students the breathing room to focus on becoming the best doctors they can be.’
The study is part of a larger research project funded by the BMA.
