What becomes of medical students: the dark side.

In the cohort of 1337 former Johns Hopkins medical students from the classes of 1948 through 1964, there were 1248 graduates and 89 nongraduates. In follow-up studies of this cohort, 49 subjects, 3.1% of the graduates and 11.2% of the nongraduates, have been found to have died prematurely. Incipient mental illness and emotional disturbance appear to have contributed substantially to academic failure, poor performance during and after medical school, and premature death. These findings underscore the need for learning to identify and help medical students who are especially vulnerable to stress. Such insights would contribute to the prevention of premature disease and death, not only from mental illness but from other disorders.