Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Swiss Med Wkly. 2012 Jul 16;142:w13626. doi: 10.4414/smw.2012.13626. eCollection 2012.
Suicidal thoughts, burnout and other signs of psychological distress are prevalent among physicians. There are no studies concerning help-seeking for psychological distress among university hospital physicians, who face a particularly challenging, competitive work environment. We compare psychologically-distressed university hospital physicians who have not sought needed help with those who have sought such help. We thereby aim to identify factors that may hinder help-seeking and factors that may trigger seeking help.
Analysis was performed among university hospital physicians reporting recent suicidal thoughts and/or showing other indications of current psychological ill-health. These distressed physicians were a subgroup (42.7%) from the cross-sectional phase I HOUPE study (Health and Organization among University Hospital Physicians in Europe): 366 from Sweden and 150 from Italy. Having sought professional help for depression or burnout was the outcome variable. Multiple logistic regression was performed with socio-demographic factors as covariates.
Altogether 404 (78.3%) of these distressed physicians had never sought professional help for depression/burnout. Physicians who were currently involved in medical research, taking night call, surgical specialists, male, or Italian were least likely to have sought help. Physicians who faced harassment at work or who self-diagnosed and self-treated were more likely to have sought help.
Very few of these university hospital physicians with signs of psychological distress sought help from a mental-health professional. This has implications for physicians themselves and for patient care, clinical research, and education of future physicians. More study, preferably of interventional design, is warranted concerning help-seeking among these physicians in need.
自杀念头、倦怠和其他心理困扰迹象在医生中普遍存在。目前还没有关于大学医院医生寻求心理困扰帮助的研究，他们面临着特别具有挑战性和竞争性的工作环境。我们将未寻求所需帮助的有心理困扰的大学医院医生与寻求过此类帮助的医生进行比较。我们旨在确定可能阻碍寻求帮助的因素和可能引发寻求帮助的因素。
对报告近期有自杀念头和/或出现当前心理不健康迹象的大学医院医生进行分析。这些有心理困扰的医生是跨学科 I 期 HOUPE 研究（欧洲大学医院医生的健康和组织）的一个亚组（42.7%）：来自瑞典的 366 名和来自意大利的 150 名。寻求专业帮助治疗抑郁或倦怠是因变量。采用多元逻辑回归分析，以社会人口因素为协变量。
共有 404 名（78.3%）有心理困扰的医生从未因抑郁/倦怠寻求过专业帮助。目前从事医学研究、上夜班、外科专家、男性或意大利人最不可能寻求帮助。在工作中面临骚扰或自我诊断和自我治疗的医生更有可能寻求帮助。
这些有心理困扰迹象的大学医院医生中，很少有人向心理健康专业人员寻求帮助。这对医生自身以及患者护理、临床研究和未来医生的教育都有影响。需要对这些有需要的医生进行更多的研究，最好是干预设计的研究，以了解他们的寻求帮助情况。
