Medical students are drinking to hazardous levels with one in five considering quitting due to the ‘toxic and competitive work culture’, a poll found.
Almost four in ten reported symptoms of anxiety or depression while one in three admitted they were ’emotionally exhausted’.
More than half claimed to suffer from insomnia and a similar number having chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to research conducted at nine medical schools across the UK.
Experts warned reducing the length of training to four years could ‘make matters worse’.
More than 1,000 students were given questionnaires where they were asked about any intention to drop out in the recent past and the extent and frequency of various aspects of their mental health.
These included emotional exhaustion; insomnia; hazardous drinking; anxiety or depression; obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); paranoia; and bipolar disorder.
Researchers found that the prevalence of mental ill health among all the respondents was ‘high’ while a ‘substantial’ number met screening criteria for mental ill health.
Six in 10 were drinking hazardously and one in five had symptoms of paranoia, according to the findings published in the BMJ Open.
Just under a fifth of medical students (19.5 per cent) said they had considered dropping out of medical school in the previous four weeks.
This is considerably higher than the estimated percentage of 5 per cent, the researchers warned.
The number of doctors who pause their training after completing Foundation training has doubled from 34 per cent in 2011/2012 to 70 per cent in 2020/2021.
Dr Milou Silkens, of Erasmus University in The Netherlands, said: ‘Dropping out of medical school can have significant personal, financial and psychological consequences for the individual.
‘There is also the financial cost to the taxpayer, and the time and effort wasted by educators.’
It comes as a staff shortage is leaving patients waiting too long for hospital and GP care, with around 120,000 NHS vacancies.
Only around one in every five applicants secure a place at medical school, with places capped at 7,500.
The research team say medical schools need to do more to improve the learning environment for students and encourage them to seek help to reduce the stigma of mental health symptoms.
They should also actively clarify that seeking help will not jeopardise their careers, but rather improve their chances of completing their degree.
Dr Silkens added: ‘The findings of this study suggest that medical students’ mental health is an important contributor to students dropping out and reinforces the importance of supporting students at medical school.
‘The various mental health symptoms that have been found to predict dropout are particularly difficult to recognise in medical students, due to the ‘toxic’ and competitive work culture of medical school normalising the idea of individuals experiencing them.’
A spokesperson for the British Medical Association said: ‘These worrying findings line up with what we hear from our fellow medical students every day.
‘No one should feel so stressed, and under such great pressure from studying to be a doctor that they experience serious symptoms of poor mental health.’
