Doctors have high level of stress, prone to depression

NEW DELHI: On July 15, Rachit Gupta, a 29-year-old student of MCh (neurosciences) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), committed suicide by injecting himself with a nerve relaxant, procured from the institute wards.
According to the institute''s own admission, Rachit, a student of a super-specialisation degree, had been depressed for a while and was under psychiatric treatment.If city psychiatrists are to be believed, Rachit''s tragic outcome was probably a one-off case. But his problem isn''t.
Dr Jitender Nagpal, consultant psychiatrist, VIMHANS, says: "It takes 10-15 years of study and professional training for a doctor to establish himself in a superspeciality branch. That is a cause of frustration."
Added Dr Nimesh Desai, medical superintendent of Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences: "The increasing competition too has taken its toll in the medical profession, the same way as anywhere else. But the actual point of concern is not the fact that doctors are prone to depression, it is the attitudinal problem most doctors have in seeking help."
Dr Nagpal explains that the society''s perception of a doctor is often someone with an Utopian state of health who cannot fall ill.
"Imagine, a person goes to the doctor and discovers that the latter has fever. The usual refrain is ‘how come he is ill?'' This burden of unreasonable social expectation further accentuates the sense of helplessness in a doctor."
With the result, says Dr Desai, that the incidence of drug abuse is high. "Tranquillisers, opioids are the most commonly abused drugs. By virtue of their profession, they handle these drugs every day. Moreover, their clinical knowledge deludes them into a false sense of security that I know everything about it, I can control the habit. But that does not happen," Dr Desai adds.
"Any profession which is associated with chronic stress, predisposes a person to depression. The level of stress in the life of a medical professional is often high and the symptoms of depression are very often missed," said Dr Anju Dhawan.