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A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America

BACKGROUND: This scoping review summarizes the existing literature regarding the mental health of physicians and physicians-in-training and explores what types of mental health concerns are discussed in the literature, what is their prevalence among physicians, what are the causes of mental health c...

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Autores principales: Mihailescu, Mara, Neiterman, Elena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31651294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7661-9
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author Mihailescu, Mara
Neiterman, Elena
author_facet Mihailescu, Mara
Neiterman, Elena
author_sort Mihailescu, Mara
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This scoping review summarizes the existing literature regarding the mental health of physicians and physicians-in-training and explores what types of mental health concerns are discussed in the literature, what is their prevalence among physicians, what are the causes of mental health concerns in physicians, what effects mental health concerns have on physicians and their patients, what interventions can be used to address them, and what are the barriers to seeking and providing care for physicians. This review aims to improve the understanding of physicians’ mental health, identify gaps in research, and propose evidence-based solutions. METHODS: A scoping review of the literature was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, which examined peer-reviewed articles published in English during 2008–2018 with a focus on North America. Data were summarized quantitatively and thematically. RESULTS: A total of 91 articles meeting eligibility criteria were reviewed. Most of the literature was specific to burnout (n = 69), followed by depression and suicidal ideation (n = 28), psychological harm and distress (n = 9), wellbeing and wellness (n = 8), and general mental health (n = 3). The literature had a strong focus on interventions, but had less to say about barriers for seeking help and the effects of mental health concerns among physicians on patient care. CONCLUSIONS: More research is needed to examine a broader variety of mental health concerns in physicians and to explore barriers to seeking care. The implication of poor physician mental health on patients should also be examined more closely. Finally, the reviewed literature lacks intersectional and longitudinal studies, as well as evaluations of interventions offered to improve mental wellbeing of physicians.
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spelling pubmed-68140302019-10-31 A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America Mihailescu, Mara Neiterman, Elena BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: This scoping review summarizes the existing literature regarding the mental health of physicians and physicians-in-training and explores what types of mental health concerns are discussed in the literature, what is their prevalence among physicians, what are the causes of mental health concerns in physicians, what effects mental health concerns have on physicians and their patients, what interventions can be used to address them, and what are the barriers to seeking and providing care for physicians. This review aims to improve the understanding of physicians’ mental health, identify gaps in research, and propose evidence-based solutions. METHODS: A scoping review of the literature was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, which examined peer-reviewed articles published in English during 2008–2018 with a focus on North America. Data were summarized quantitatively and thematically. RESULTS: A total of 91 articles meeting eligibility criteria were reviewed. Most of the literature was specific to burnout (n = 69), followed by depression and suicidal ideation (n = 28), psychological harm and distress (n = 9), wellbeing and wellness (n = 8), and general mental health (n = 3). The literature had a strong focus on interventions, but had less to say about barriers for seeking help and the effects of mental health concerns among physicians on patient care. CONCLUSIONS: More research is needed to examine a broader variety of mental health concerns in physicians and to explore barriers to seeking care. The implication of poor physician mental health on patients should also be examined more closely. Finally, the reviewed literature lacks intersectional and longitudinal studies, as well as evaluations of interventions offered to improve mental wellbeing of physicians. BioMed Central 2019-10-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6814030/ /pubmed/31651294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7661-9 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mihailescu, Mara
Neiterman, Elena
A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America
title A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America
title_full A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America
title_fullStr A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America
title_full_unstemmed A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America
title_short A scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in North America
title_sort scoping review of the literature on the current mental health status of physicians and physicians-in-training in north america
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31651294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7661-9
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