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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio High

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff. I'm more in Volga Bam and today's episode

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Speaker 1: is a classic from our erstwhile host of Christian Sagar.

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Speaker 1: Some students are returning to school right now, and with

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Speaker 1: COVID nineteen still raging in some areas, it's an extra

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Speaker 1: stressful start to the year. But research has shown that

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Speaker 1: stress and depression are a really common part of especially

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Speaker 1: higher learning. Hey, brain Stuff, it's Christian Sagar here. We

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Speaker 1: all get sick of school, right. It's a common complaint

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Speaker 1: for students at large. But when you hear a doctoral

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Speaker 1: students say it, listen up. Mental health problems are more

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Speaker 1: prevalent in PhD students than in the highly educated population

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Speaker 1: in general, including highly educated employees and students, according to

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Speaker 1: recent research published in the journal Research Policy. The study

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Speaker 1: highlights concerns about the influence that academic working conditions have

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Speaker 1: on mental health, particularly among PhD students in a range

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Speaker 1: of disciplines. The researchers surveyed three thousand, six hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty nine PhD students in Flanders, Belgium using a General

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Speaker 1: Health questionnaire. This is a twelve question mental health screening

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Speaker 1: tool that assesses a person's well being and potentially psychological

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Speaker 1: distress in light of mental health disorders. Now PhD programs

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Speaker 1: in Europe. They're similar to those in the US in

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Speaker 1: many ways, but there are some differences, including students having

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Speaker 1: generally lower fees, shorter program terms, and a formal employment

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Speaker 1: contract with their universities. In Europe, the g h Q

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Speaker 1: questions focused on symptoms of depression and social dysfunction, from

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Speaker 1: constant strain and unhappiness to lack of concentration and losing

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Speaker 1: self confidence, using the version of the g h Q

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Speaker 1: that requires the presence of four symptoms to consider a

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Speaker 1: person ill. The research has found that thirty two percent

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Speaker 1: of the PhD students assessed were at risk of having

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Speaker 1: or developing a common psychiatric disorder, namely depression. Some of

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Speaker 1: the more common feelings students reported were sleeping problems due

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Speaker 1: to worries, and the inability to get over difficulties and

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Speaker 1: enjoy everyday activities. Thirty two percent is a notable amount

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Speaker 1: considering data from the World Health Organization indicates that depression

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Speaker 1: is the leading cause of ill health and disability in

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Speaker 1: the world, and when the researchers compared the risk of

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Speaker 1: psychiatric disorders and PhD students to that of the highly

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Speaker 1: educated general population, highly educated employees, and high education students.

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Speaker 1: They discovered that it was significantly higher for PhD students

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Speaker 1: two point four three, two point eight four, and one

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Speaker 1: point eight five times, respectively. It's easy to think that

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Speaker 1: the heavy academic workload causes all the pressure, but the

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Speaker 1: researchers found that work environment and organizational policies also contribute

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Speaker 1: to psychiatric issues. Work family balance difficulties, high job demands,

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Speaker 1: low job control, laser fair or passive leadership style and supervisors,

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Speaker 1: and even a team culture of closed decision making, where

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Speaker 1: all factors linked to potential mental health problems. On the

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Speaker 1: other hand, mental health was better in PhD students who

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Speaker 1: add advisors with an inspirational leadership style, desired an academic career,

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Speaker 1: and valued their degree outside of academia. The studies authors

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Speaker 1: aren't saying that working in academia or pursuing a doctoral

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Speaker 1: degree is definitively bad for your health, but their findings

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Speaker 1: do indicate that the stressors of being a PhD student

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Speaker 1: are more than a pain in the neck. If PhD

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Speaker 1: students work conditions and career outlook are inadequate, their mental

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Speaker 1: health may not the great. Today's episode was written by

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Speaker 1: Shelley Dancy and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Play.

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Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other topics, visit

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Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of i

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Speaker 1: Heeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the

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