phd causes depression

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• v.20(3); Fall 2021

PhDepression: Examining How Graduate Research and Teaching Affect Depression in Life Sciences PhD Students

Logan e. gin.

† Research for Inclusive STEM Education Center, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281

Nicholas J. Wiesenthal

§ Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816

Katelyn M. Cooper

Graduate students are more than six times as likely to experience depression compared with the general population. However, few studies have examined how graduate school specifically affects depression. In this qualitative interview study of 50 life sciences PhD students from 28 institutions, we examined how research and teaching affect depression in PhD students and how depression in turn affects students’ experiences teaching and researching. Using inductive coding, we identified factors that either positively or negatively affected student depression. Graduate students more commonly mentioned factors related to research that negatively affected their depression and factors related to teaching that positively affected their depression. We identified four overarching aspects of graduate school that influenced student depression: the amount of structure in teaching and research, positive and negative reinforcement, success and failure, and social support and isolation. Graduate students reported that depression had an exclusively negative effect on their research, primarily hindering their motivation and self-confidence, but that it helped them to be more compassionate teachers. This work pinpoints specific aspects of graduate school that PhD programs can target to improve mental health among life sciences graduate students.

INTRODUCTION

In 2018, researchers found that graduate students were more than six times as likely to report experiencing depression and anxiety compared with the general population and subsequently declared a “graduate student mental health crisis” ( Evans et al. , 2018 ; Flaherty, 2018 ). Calls to identify which factors exacerbate graduate student mental health problems followed (“The Mental Health of PhD Researchers,” 2019; Woolston, 2019a ). However, few studies have taken an inductive approach to identifying what aspects of graduate school in particular affect student mental health. More commonly, large quantitative studies propose a limited number of factors that may affect student mental health that participants select from, few of which directly relate to graduate research or teaching ( Peluso et al. , 2011 ; Levecque et al. , 2017 ; Evans et al. , 2018 ; Liu et al. , 2019 ). In this interview study, we focus on depression in life sciences PhD students and examine which specific aspects of research and teaching graduate students report as affecting their depression. We also explore how depression affects students’ experiences in graduate school.

The American Psychiatric Association defines depression as a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how one feels, the way one thinks, and how one acts ( American Psychiatric Association, 2020 ). Depression is characterized by nine symptoms: depressed mood; markedly diminished interest or pleasure in activities; reduced ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness; feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt; recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation, or suicide attempts or plans; insomnia or hypersomnia; significant change in appetite or weight; psychomotor agitation or retardation; and fatigue or loss of energy ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; Schmidt and Tolentino, 2018 ). For depression to be diagnosed, the presence of at least five of the symptoms is required most of the day, nearly every day, for at least 2 weeks in addition to the occurrence of either depressed mood or diminished interest or pleasure ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ). In the general U.S. population, depression affects approximately 6.7% of individuals and is estimated to affect 16.6% of individuals at some point in their lifetime.

Graduate students are far more likely to report experiencing depression compared with the general population ( Evans et al. , 2018 ; Barreira et al. , 2020 ). Specifically, a recent study of master’s and PhD students in programs across the world, spanning a variety of disciplines, found that 39% of graduate students reported having moderate to severe depression ( Evans et al. , 2018 ). Similar studies have demonstrated high rates of depression in graduate students in specific disciplines such as economics ( Barreira et al. , 2020 ), biochemistry ( Helmers et al. , 1997 ), pharmacology ( Helmers et al. , 1997 ), and physiology ( Helmers et al. , 1997 ). Depression rates have surged in recent years among graduate students ( American College Health Association, 2014 , 2019 ). Talking about depression has become more socially acceptable, particularly among younger adults ( Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2015 ; Lipson et al. , 2019 ), which may have contributed to the number of students willing to reveal that they are struggling with mental health. Additionally, depression is highly related to burnout, defined as a work-related chronic stress syndrome involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment ( Maslach et al. , 2001 ; Bianchi et al. , 2014 ). Graduate work environments appear to be increasingly characterized as stressful and demanding ( American College Health Association, 2014 , 2019 ; Woolston, 2017 ), which may also be contributing to the increase in graduate depression rates.

Increasingly, scientists, psychologists, and education researchers are recognizing graduate student mental health as a concern and calling for further investigation of graduate student mental health in hopes of identifying interventions to improve graduate student quality of life (“The Mental Health of PhD Researchers,” 2019; Woolston, 2019a , b ). For example, in 2019, Nature added a question to its annual survey of PhD students asking students from around the world whether they had sought help for anxiety or depression, and more than one-third (36%) confirmed they had ( Woolston, 2019b ). Additionally, notable publication outlets such as Nature (“The Mental Health of PhD Researchers,” 2019), Scientific American ( Puri, 2019 ), and Science ( Pain, 2018 ) have published blogs or editorials spotlighting the need to improve graduate student mental health.

Some recent studies have sought to uncover the factors affecting depression in graduate students. Primarily, survey studies with predetermined factors that researchers hypothesized impact student mental health have identified poor mentor–mentee relationships ( Peluso et al. , 2011 ; Evans et al. , 2018 ; Hish et al. , 2019 ; Liu et al. , 2019 ; Charles et al. , 2021 ), financial stress ( Hish et al. , 2019 ; Jones-White et al. , 2020 ; Charles et al. , 2021 ), and lack of work–life balance ( Evans et al. , 2018 ; Liu et al. , 2019 ) to be associated with depression or depressive symptoms among graduate students in various disciplines. Other variables shown to be predictive of depression include low research self-efficacy, defined as low confidence in one’s ability to do research ( Liu et al. , 2019 ), difficulty publishing papers ( Liu et al. , 2019 ), hours worked per week ( Peluso et al. , 2011 ), and perceived institutional discrimination ( Charles et al. , 2021 ). Factors that appear to be protective of depressive symptoms include social support ( Charles et al. , 2021 ), mastery, defined as the extent to which individuals perceive themselves to be in control of the forces that impact their lives ( Hish et al. , 2019 ), positive departmental social climate ( Charles et al. , 2021 ), optimism about career prospects ( Charles et al. , 2021 ), and sense of belonging to one’s graduate program ( Jones-White et al. , 2020 ). While these studies have identified some depression-related factors associated with graduate school broadly and emphasize the importance of positive mentor–mentee relationships, few studies have explored factors specifically associated with research and teaching, the two activities that graduate students engage in most frequently during their time in a program. Additionally, the extant literature has primarily focused on surface causes of graduate student depression, yet understanding the underlying causes may be key to developing meaningful interventions. For example, while it is well established that student perception of poor mentorship is related to student depression ( Evans et al. , 2018 ; Hish et al. , 2019 ; Liu et al. , 2019 ; Charles et al. , 2021 ), it is less well understood what specific behaviors mentors exhibit and how such behaviors negatively affect the cognitive and behavioral underpinnings of graduate student depression. Without this knowledge, it is difficult to develop strategies to help mentors be more inclusive of students.

Theories of depression seek to explain the causes of depression. No theoretical model is widely accepted as an overarching framework for depression within the psychological and psychiatric communities ( Mcleod, 2015 ; Ramnerö et al. , 2016 ); instead, there are a number of models addressing how different aspects of depression are associated with the disorder. Arguably, the three most prominent models are cognitive ( Beck et al. , 1979 ), behavioral ( Martell et al. , 2001 ), and psychodynamic ( Busch et al. , 2016 ). In brief, cognitive theories focus on an individual’s beliefs and propose that changes in thinking precede depressive symptoms; for example, negative views of oneself, the world, and the future are thought to be common for individuals with depression ( Beck et al. , 1979 ; Leahy, 2002 ). Behavioral theories emphasize that depression is a result of one’s interaction with the environment; depressive symptoms are thought to be the result of decreased reward, lack of positive reinforcement, encouragement of depressive or passive behaviors, and discouragement of healthy behaviors ( Lewinsohn, 1974 ; Martell et al. , 2001 ; Carvalho et al. , 2011 ). Psychodynamic theories of depression consider the role of feelings and behaviors in the etiology and persistence of depressive symptoms; these theories often focus on 1) one’s biology and temperamental vulnerabilities, 2) earliest attachment relationships, and 3) childhood experiences associated with frustration, helplessness, loss, guilty, or loneliness ( Busch et al. , 2016 ). While each group of theories has been critiqued and no one theory fully explains one’s experience with depression ( Mcleod, 2015 ; Ramnerö et al. , 2016 ), we propose that each may be helpful in understanding how aspects of graduate school may affect depression among PhD students.

The thoughts and behaviors associated with depression may in turn affect students’ experiences in graduate school, particularly their experiences with research and teaching. While no studies have examined how depression explicitly affects graduate students’ research experiences, studies have identified ways in which depression can affect students’ experiences in undergraduate research ( Cooper et al. , 2020a , b ). Undergraduate researchers report that their depression negatively affected their motivation, ability to concentrate and remember, intellectual engagement, and creativity in research ( Cooper et al. , 2020b ). Undergraduates described that their depression also caused them to be overly self-critical, less social, and ultimately negatively affected their research productivity. Additionally, undergraduates have been reluctant to share their depression with others in the lab, because they fear that they will be judged ( Cooper et al. , 2020b ). While these studies provide some insight into how depression may affect graduate students’ experience in research, there is much less information about how depression may affect graduate teaching.

In this study, we interviewed 50 PhD students in the life sciences who self-identified with having depression with the intent of answering two research questions that address gaps in the literature: 1) What specific aspects of graduate research and teaching affect PhD student depression? 2) How does PhD students’ depression affect their experience in research and teaching?

Student Interviews

This study was done under an approved Arizona State University Institutional Review Board protocol (no. 00011040).

In Fall 2019, we surveyed graduate students by sending an email out to program administrators of all life sciences graduate programs in the United States that are listed in U.S. News & World Report (2019) . Of the 259 graduate programs that we contacted, 75 (29.0%) program administrators agreed to forward our survey to students enrolled in their graduate programs. Of the 840 graduate students who participated in the survey, 459 (54.6%) self-identified as having depression based on general demographic questions on the survey. Of the 459 students who identified as having depression, 327 (71.2%) agreed to be contacted for a follow-up interview. In Summer 2020, we sent a recruitment email out to the 327 students who identified as having depression, asking to interview them about their experiences with depression in a PhD program. We specifically did not require that students be diagnosed with depression in order to participate in the interview study. We did not want to bias our sample, as mental health care is disproportionately unavailable to Black and Latinx individuals, as well as to those who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds ( Howell and McFeeters, 2008 ; Kataoka et al. , 2002 ; Santiago et al. , 2013 ). Of the students who were contacted, 50 PhD students (15.3%) enrolled across 28 life sciences PhD programs completed an interview.

The interview script was based on a previous interview script that we had developed, which successfully elicited what aspects of research affect depression in undergraduates and how depression affects their research ( Cooper et al. , 2020a ). Our previous work has shown that research experiences do not exclusively worsen depression, but that aspects of research can also help students manage their depression ( Cooper et al. , 2020a ). As such, our interview questions explored what aspects of research helped students manage their depression (positively affecting depression), and what aspects worsened students’ depression (negatively affecting depression). Additionally, we hypothesized that other prominent aspects of graduate school, such as teaching, would also affect PhD student depression and revised the interview script to include questions focused on examining the relationship between depression and teaching. We asked students what aspects of graduate research and teaching made their depression worse and what aspects helped them manage their depression. Participants were invited to come up with as many aspects as possible. We also asked how students perceived their depression affected their research and teaching. With the knowledge that we would be conducting interviews during summer of 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the pandemic had likely exacerbated graduate student depression ( Chirikov et al. , 2020 ), we directed students to not reference aspects of research and teaching that were uniquely related to the pandemic (e.g., teaching remotely or halted research) when discussing the relationship between research, teaching, and depression. We were specifically interested in aspects of teaching and research that affected student depression before the pandemic and would presumably affect student depression afterward. We conducted think-aloud interviews with four graduate students who identified as having depression to ensure that our questions would not offend anyone with depression and to establish cognitive validity of the interview script by ensuring that each student understood what each question was asking. The interview script was iteratively revised after each think-aloud interview ( Trenor et al. , 2011 ). A final copy of the interview script can be found in the Supplemental Material.

All interviews were conducted using Zoom by one of two researchers (L.E.G. or K.M.C.). The average interview time was about 45 minutes. After the interview, all participants were sent a short survey to collect their demographics and additional information about their depression (a copy of the survey can be found in the Supplemental Material). Participants were provided a small monetary gift card in exchange for their time. All interviews were deidentified and transcribed before analysis.

Interview Analysis

Three researchers (L.E.G., N.J.W., and K.M.C.) independently reviewed 12 of the same randomly selected interviews to explore each idea that a participant expressed and to identify recurring themes ( Charmaz, 2006 ). Each researcher took detailed analytic notes during the review. After, the three researchers met to discuss their notes and to identify an initial set of recurring themes that occurred throughout the interviews ( Saldaña, 2015 ). The authors created an initial codebook outlining each theme and the related description. Together, the authors then reviewed the same set of five additional interviews to validate the themes outlined in the codebook and to identify any themes that may have been missed during the initial review. The researchers used constant comparison methods to compare quotes from the interviews to each theme and to establish whether any quotes were different enough from a particular theme to warrant an additional code ( Glesne and Peshkin, 1992 ). Together, the three researchers revised the codebook until they were confident that it captured the most common themes and that no new themes were emerging. A final copy of the codebook can be found in the Supplemental Material. Two authors (L.E.G. and N.J.W.) used the final codebook to code five randomly selected interviews (10% of all interviews) and their Cohen’s κ interrater score was at an acceptable level (κ = 0.94; Landis and Koch, 1977 ). Then, one researcher (N.J.W.) coded the remaining 45 interviews. In the text, we present themes mentioned by at least 10% of interviewees and use quotes to highlight themes. Some quotes were lightly edited for clarity.

Author Positionality

Some of the authors identify as having depression and some do not. One author had completed a PhD program (K.M.C.), one author was in the process of completing a PhD program (L.E.G.), and two authors were undergraduates (N.J.W. and I.F.) at the time when the interviews and analyses took place.

Interview Participants

Fifty PhD students agreed to participate in the study. Students were primarily women (58%), white (74%), and continuing-generation college students (78%). Twelve percent of students were international students, and the average age of the participants was 28 years old. While 20% of students were unsure of their career goals, 32% of students planned to pursue a career in academia, and 24% were planning to pursue a career in industry. Students reported how severe they perceived their depression to be, on average, during the time they had spent in their PhD programs. Most students reported their depression as either moderate (50%) or severe (28%). Eighty percent of students reported being diagnosed with depression, and 74% reported receiving treatment for depression. Participants were at different stages in their PhD programs ranging from first year to sixth year or more. Three students had graduated between the time they completed the initial survey and when they participated in the interview in Summer 2020. Students self-reported their main research areas and represented a broad range, with ecology and evolutionary biology (26%), animal science (14%), molecular biology (14%), and neurobiology (10%) being the most common. Eighty-six percent of students had experience teaching undergraduates, primarily as teaching assistants (TAs), at the time of the interviews. All student demographics are summarized in Table 1 .

Participant demographics

The Effect of Research on Graduate Student Depression

Students more commonly identified ways that research negatively affected their depression than ways research positively affected their depression. Considering all factors that students listed and not just those that were most common, students on average listed two ways in which an aspect of research negatively affected their depression and one way in which an aspect of research positively affected their depression.

The most commonly reported aspect of research that worsened students’ depression was experiencing failures, obstacles, or setbacks in research. Specifically, students cited that failed experiments, failed research projects, and the rejection of manuscripts and grants was particularly difficult for their depression. Conversely, students highlighted that their depression was positively affected when they were able to make substantial progress on their research projects; for example, if they wrote part of a manuscript or if an experiment worked. Students also explained that accomplishing smaller or mundane research tasks was helpful for their depression, both because they felt as though they were checking off a box and also because it allowed them to focus on something other than the negative thoughts often associated with depression.

Students also highlighted that the unstructured nature of graduate research worsened their depression. Specifically, students described that, in graduate research, there are often no clear directions, sets of guidelines, or deadlines to help structure their day-to-day activities. Without this structure, students need to rely on their own motivation to outline goals, accomplish tasks, or seek help, which participants described can be difficult when one is experiencing a depressive episode. However, students also felt as though the unstructured nature of research benefited their depression, because it allowed for flexibility. Those who did not have frequent deadlines or strict schedules were able to not conduct research on days when they needed to recover from a depressive episode or schedule research around therapy or other activities that had a positive impact on their depression. Finally, students highlighted that their passion for their research was protective against depression. Their love for the subject of their research or thinking about how their work may have a positive impact on others could positively affect their motivation or mood.

Students described that their relationships with others in the lab also affected their depression. Specifically, if their mentors or others in their lab had unreasonable or overwhelming expectations of them, it could make them feel as though they would never be able to meet such expectations. Research also provides an environment for students to constantly compare themselves with others, both those in supervisory roles as well as peers. Notably, when students mentioned comparing themselves with others, this comparison never made them feel good about themselves, but was exclusively detrimental to their depression; they felt as though they would never be able to accomplish what others had already accomplished. Students’ relationships with their mentors also seemed to have a notable impact on their depression. Having a positive relationship with their mentors or a mentor who provided psychosocial support positively affected their depression, whereas perceiving a negative relationship with their mentors, particularly a mentor who provided consistently harsh or negative feedback, was detrimental. Students who had absent mentors or mentors who provided infrequent technical support and guidance also felt as though this situation worsened their depression, because it prevented or prolonged their success in research. Finally, students highlighted that conducting graduate research can be isolating, because you are often working on something different from those in the lab or because those outside graduate school cannot relate to the stress and struggles associated with research. However, in instances in which students were able to collaborate with others, this could be protective against depression, because it gave students a sense of comradery or validated their feelings about specific aspects of research. The most common research-related factors that students reported negatively and positively affected their depression and example student quotes of each factor are reported in Tables 2 and ​ and3, 3 , respectively.

Research-related factors that PhD students reported negatively affected their depression

Research-related factors that PhD students reported positively affected their depression

The Effect of Teaching on Graduate Student Depression

We asked all graduate students who had teaching experience ( n = 43) how teaching affected their depression. Graduate students more commonly identified ways that teaching positively affected their depression than ways teaching negatively affected their depression. On average, considering all factors that graduate students listed and not just those that were most common, participants listed two ways in which teaching positively affected their depression and one way in which teaching negatively affected their depression.

Graduate students most commonly highlighted that teaching provided positive reinforcement from undergraduates, which helped them manage their depression. This positive reinforcement came in multiple forms ranging from formal teaching evaluations to positive verbal comments from undergraduates about how good a graduate student was at teaching to watching undergraduates accomplish academic goals or grasp complex concepts. A subset of graduate students highlighted that teaching was good for their depression, because it was something they were passionate about or that they genuinely enjoyed. As such, it was a source of happiness, as was being able to collaborate and form friendships with other TAs or instructors. Some graduate students also acknowledged that they felt confident teaching, often because they had mastered content that undergraduates had not. However, this was not always the case; some graduate students highlighted that a lack of teaching training and preparation negatively affected their self-efficacy as instructors, which in turn exacerbated their depression. This was further exacerbated by the pressure that graduate students put on themselves to perform well as instructors. The potential to have a negative impact on undergraduates and their learning experiences could worsen students’ depression by increasing the stress surrounding their performance as a teacher. Additionally, some graduate students received negative reinforcement from undergraduates, in the form of negative comments on formal teaching evaluations or disrespectful behavior from undergraduates such as groans or eye rolls, which graduate students explained negatively affected their self-efficacy, further worsening their depression.

Students also highlighted that teaching could negatively affect their depression because it interfered with the time they felt they needed to be spending on research or added to the large number of responsibilities they had as graduate students. However, some students welcomed time away from research; teaching sometimes served as a distraction from research-related stressors. Students also highlighted that teaching is structured, which positively affected their depression. That is, there are concrete tasks, such as grading, that need to be accomplished or places that the graduate student needs to be during a specific time. This structure helped motivate them to accomplish teaching goals, even if they were feeling a lack of motivation because of their depression. The most common teaching-related factors that graduate students reported negatively and positively affected their depression and example student quotes for each factor are reported in Tables 4 and ​ and5, 5 , respectively.

Teaching-related factors that PhD students reported negatively affected their depression

a Forty-three out of the 50 students who participated in the study had experience teaching undergraduates either as a TA or as an instructor of record. We only considered the responses from the TAs with teaching experiences when calculating the percent of students who reported each factor.

Teaching-related factors that PhD students reported positively affected their depression

The Effect of Depression on Graduate Research

In the interviews, we asked graduate students how their depression affected their graduate research, if at all. They identified three primary ways in which depression could affect research, all of which were negative. The most common way depression affected research was interfering with students’ motivation, which in turn affected their productivity. Students described that their productivity was affected immediately, for example, struggling to execute daily tasks like collecting or analyzing data. However, graduate students described that their lack of motivation ultimately resulted in larger consequences, such as delays in getting papers submitted and published. In fact, some graduate students explicitly stated that they felt as though they would have been able to graduate earlier if they had not had depression. The second way in which depression affected graduate students’ research is that it interfered with their ability to focus or concentrate. Students primarily explained that the lack of focus did not delay their research but caused their research to be less enjoyable or made them frustrated because they had to expend additional mental energy to execute tasks. Depression also caused students to be less confident or overly critical of themselves. Specifically, if an experiment did not go right or they experienced rejection of a manuscript, they tended to internalize it and blame themselves. This lack of confidence often inhibited students’ abilities to make decisions about research or take risks in research. They described frequently second-guessing themselves, which made decisions and taking risks in research more difficult. The most common ways students reported that their depression affected their research and example student quotes are reported in Table 6 .

Self-reported ways that depression affected PhD students’ research or the student as a researcher

The Effect of Depression on Teaching

Graduate students described one positive way and two negative ways that depression affected their teaching. Students explained that, because they had experienced depression, they were more compassionate and empathetic toward the undergraduates in their courses. Specifically, they felt they could better understand some of the struggles that undergraduates experience and were sometimes more likely to be flexible or lenient about course requirements and deadlines if an undergraduate was struggling. However, graduate students reported that depression also negatively affected their teaching. Specifically, depression could cause graduate students to feel disconnected or disengaged from undergraduates. It could also cause graduate students to feel as though they had a lack of energy or felt down when teaching. The common self-reported ways that depression affected PhD students’ teaching and example quotes are reported in Table 7 .

Self-reported ways that depression affected PhD students’ teaching or the graduate student as an instructor

a Forty-three out of the 50 students who participated in the study had experience teaching undergraduates either as a TA or as an instructor of record. We only considered the responses from the TAs with teaching experiences when calculating the percent of students who reported each theme.

Despite the increasing concern about graduate student mental health among those in the scientific community ( Pain, 2018 ; “The Mental Health of PhD Researchers,” 2019; Puri, 2019 ), there is a lack of information about how specific aspects of science PhD programs affect students with depression. This is the first study to explicitly investigate which particular aspects of research and teaching affect depression among life sciences PhD students and how depression, in turn, affects graduate students’ experiences in research and teaching. Overall, graduate students highlighted factors related to teaching and research that both alleviated and exacerbated their symptoms of depression. Graduate students more commonly brought up ways that research negatively affected their depression, than ways that it positively affected their depression. Conversely, graduate students more commonly mentioned ways that teaching had a positive effect on their depression compared with a negative effect. The requirement and opportunity to teach differs among life sciences graduate programs ( Schussler et al. , 2015 ; Shortlidge and Eddy, 2018 ). As such, future research should investigate whether the amount of teaching one engages in during graduate school is related to levels of graduate student depression. Despite differences in how teaching and research affect student depression, this study unveiled factors that protect against or worsen depressive symptoms. Specifically, four overarching factors affecting graduate student depression emerged from the interviews: 1) Structure; 2) Positive and Negative Reinforcement; 3) Failure and Success; 4) Social Support and Isolation. We discuss here how each of these factors may positively and negatively affect graduate student depression.

One stark contrast between research and teaching is the amount of structure in each activity. That is, students expressed that research goals are often amorphous, that there are not concrete instructions for what needs to be accomplished, and that there is often no set schedule for when particular tasks need to be accomplished. Conversely, with teaching, graduate students often knew what the goals were (e.g., to help students learn), exactly what they needed to accomplish each week (e.g., what to grade, what to teach), and when and where they needed to show up to teach (e.g., a class meets at a particular time). Graduate students highlighted that a lack of structure, particularly in research, was detrimental for their depression. Their depression often made it difficult for them to feel motivated when there was not a concrete task to accomplish. Major depression can interfere with executive function and cognition, making goal setting and goal achievement particularly difficult ( Elliott, 1998 ; Watkins and Brown, 2002 ). In fact, research has documented that individuals with depression generate less specific goals and less specific explanations for approaching a goal than individuals who do not have depression ( Dickson and Moberly, 2013 ). As such, it may be particularly helpful for students with depression when an activity is structured, relieving the student from the need to articulate specific goals and steps to achieve goals. Students noted that the lack of structure or the flexibility in research was helpful for their depression in one way: It allowed them to better treat their depression. Specifically, students highlighted that they were able to take time to go to therapy or to not go into the lab or to avoid stressful tasks, which may be important for successful recovery from a depressive episode ( Judd et al. , 2000 ).

Compared with conducting research, many participants reported that the concrete tasks associated with teaching undergraduates were helpful for their depression. This is supported by literature that illustrates that concrete thinking, as opposed to abstract thinking, can reduce difficulty making decisions in individuals with depression ( Dey et al. , 2018 ), presuming that teaching often requires more concrete thinking compared with research, which can be more abstract. Additionally, cognitive-behavioral treatments for depression have demonstrated that developing concrete goals for completing tasks is helpful for individuals with depression ( Detweiler-Bedell and Whisman, 2005 ), which aligns with graduate students’ perceptions that having concrete goals for completing teaching tasks was particularly helpful for their depression.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Graduate students reported that the negative reinforcement experienced in research and teaching had a significant negative effect on their depression, while the positive reinforcement students experienced only in teaching had a positive effect. Notably, students did not mention how positive reinforcement affected their depression in the context of research. Based on student interviews, we predict that this is not because they were unaffected by positive reinforcement in research, but because they experienced it so infrequently. Drawing from behavioral theories of depression, the concept of response-contingent positive reinforcement (RCPR; Lewinsohn, 1974 ; Kanter et al. , 2004 ) helps explain this finding. As summarized by Kanter and colleagues (2004) , RCPR describes someone seeking a response and being positively reinforced; for example, graduate students seeking feedback on their research are told that what they have accomplished is impressive. Infrequent RCPR may lead to cognitive symptoms of depression, such as low self-esteem or guilt, resulting in somatic symptoms of depression, such as fatigue and dysphoria ( Lewinsohn, 1974 ; Martell et al. , 2001 ; Manos et al. , 2010 ). RCPR is determined by three factors. 1) How many potential events may be positively reinforcing to an individual. For example, some people may find an undergraduate scoring highly on an exam in a class they are teaching to be reinforcing and others may find that they only feel reinforced when an undergraduate explicitly compliments their teaching. 2) The availability of reinforcing events in the environment. If graduate students’ mentors have the ability to provide them with RCPR but are never able to meet with them, these reinforcing events are unavailable to them. 3) The instrumental behavior of an individual. Does the individual exhibit the behavior required to obtain RCPR? If graduate students do not accomplish their research-related tasks on time, they may not receive RCPR from their mentor. If individuals are not positively reinforced for a particular behavior, they may stop exhibiting it, further exacerbating the depressive cycle ( Manos et al. , 2010 ). Therefore, the lack of positive reinforcement in research may be particularly damaging to graduate students, because it may discourage them from completing tasks, leading to additional depressive symptoms. Conversely, teaching presents many opportunities for positive reinforcement. Every time graduate students teach, they have the opportunity to receive positive reinforcement from their students or to witness a student’s academic accomplishment, such as an undergraduate expressing excitement when they understand a concept. As such, it is not surprising that positive reinforcement was the primary teaching-related factor that graduate students reported helped with their depression. Despite the positive reinforcement of teaching for graduate students with depression, we are not suggesting that graduate students should take on additional teaching loads or that teaching should be viewed as the sole respite for graduate students with depression. Overwhelming students with increased responsibilities may counteract any positive impact that teaching could have on students’ depression.

Failure and Success

Failure and success affected student depression, but only in the context of research; contrary to research, students rarely mentioned concrete metrics for success and failure in teaching. While graduate students highlighted receiving positive or negative reinforcement from undergraduates, they did not relate this to being a “successful” instructor. It is unsurprising that graduate students did not mention failing or succeeding at teaching, given that experts in teaching agree that it is difficult to objectively evaluate quality teaching ( d’Apollonia and Abrami, 1997 ; Kember et al. , 2002 ; Gormally et al. , 2014 ). In fact, the lack of teacher training and knowledge about how to teach effectively negatively affected student depression, because it could cause students to feel unprepared as an instructor. Integrating teacher training into graduate programs has been championed for decades ( Torvi, 1994 ; Tanner and Allen, 2006 ; Schussler et al. , 2015 ); however, the potential for such training to bolster graduate student mental health is new and should be considered in future research. With regard to graduate students’ research, the concept of success and failure was far more concrete; students mentioned failing in terms of failed experiments, research projects, and rejected manuscripts and grant proposals. Successes included accepted manuscripts, funded grant proposals, and concrete progress on significant tasks, such as writing or conducting an experiment that yielded usable data. Failure has been shown to negatively affect depression among undergraduate researchers ( Cooper et al. , 2020a ), who are hypothesized to be inadequately prepared to experience failure in science ( Henry et al. , 2019 ). However, it is less clear how well prepared graduate students are to experience failure ( Simpson and Maltese, 2017 ). Drawing from cognitive theories of depression, depression is associated with dysfunctional cognitive schemas or dysfunctional thinking that can lead individuals with depression to have negative thoughts about the world, themselves, and the future and to interpret information more negatively than is actually the case (called negative information-processing biases; Beck, 1967 ; Beck et al. , 1979 ; Gotlib and Krasnoperova, 1998 ; Maj et al. , 2020 ). Related to failure, individuals with dysfunctional cognitive schemas may harbor beliefs such as if something fails at work (or in graduate research), they are a failure as a person or that a small failure can be as detrimental as a larger failure ( Weissman, 1979 ; Miranda and Persons, 1988 ). As such, setbacks in research may be particularly difficult for PhD students with depression. Graduate students in our study also mentioned how failing in research was often out of their control, particularly failure related to experiments and research projects. The extent to which one feels they can control their environment is important for mental health, and lower estimates of control have been hypothesized to be an important factor for depression ( Grahek et al. , 2019 ). Therefore, this feeling of being unable to control success in research may further exacerbate student depression, but this would need to be tested. Importantly, these findings do not imply that individuals with depression are unable to cope with failure; they only suggest that individuals perceive that failure in science can exacerbate their depression.

Social Support and Isolation

Graduate students reported that feelings of isolation in research could worsen their depression. Specifically, they highlighted that it can be difficult for their mental health when their friends outside graduate school cannot relate to their struggles in research and when others in their research group are not working on similar projects. One study of more than 1400 graduate students at a single university found that feeling isolated from fellow graduate students and faculty positively predicted imposter phenomenon ( Cohen and McConnell, 2019 ), defined as the worry that they were fooling others about their abilities and that their fraudulence would be exposed ( Clance and Imes, 1978 ), which is positively correlated with depression among college students ( McGregor et al. , 2008 ). Developing a positive lab environment, where undergraduates, graduate students, and postgraduates develop positive relationships, has been shown to positively affect undergraduates ( Cooper et al. , 2019 ) and may also positively affect graduate students who experience such feelings of isolation. Graduate students in this study described that both teaching and research had the potential to be a source for relationship development and social support. Students who described positive collaborative relationships in research and teaching felt this had a positive impact on their depression, which aligns with a review of studies in psychiatry concluding that being connected to a large number of people and having individuals who are able to provide emotional support by listening or giving advice is protective against depression ( Santini et al. , 2015 ), as well as a study that found that social support is protective against depression, specifically among the graduate population ( Charles et al. , 2021 ).

These four factors provide clear targets for graduate programs looking to improve the experiences of students with depression. For example, increasing structure in research could be particularly helpful for graduate students with depression. Ensuring that students have concrete plans to accomplish each week may not only positively impact depression by increasing structure, but ultimately by increasing a student’s success in research. Research mentors can also emphasize the role of failure in science, helping students realize that failure is more common than they may perceive. Increasing opportunities for positive reinforcement in teaching and research may be another avenue to improving student mental health. Providing students with appropriate teacher training is a first step to enhancing their teaching skills and potential for positive reinforcement from undergraduate students ( Schussler et al. , 2015 ). Additionally, teaching evaluations, a common form of both positive and negative reinforcement, are known to be biased and disadvantage women, People of Color, and those with non–English speaking backgrounds ( Fan et al. , 2019 ; Chávez and Mitchell, 2020 ) and arguably should not be used to assess teaching. In research, mentors can make an effort to provide positive feedback or praise in meetings in addition to critiques. Finally, to provide social support to graduate students with depression, graduate programs could consider creating specific initiatives that are related to supporting the mental health of graduate students in their departments, such as a support group for students to meet and discuss their experiences in graduate school and how those experience pertain to their mental health.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

In this study, we chose to only interview students with the identity of interest (depression), as is common with exploratory studies of individuals with underserved, underrepresented, or marginalized identities (e.g. Carlone and Johnson, 2007 ; Cooper and Brownell, 2016 ; Barnes et al. , 2017 , 2021 ; Downing et al. , 2020 ; Gin et al. , 2021 ; Pfeifer et al. , 2021 ). However, in future studies, it would be beneficial to also examine the experiences of individuals who do not have depression. This would provide information about the extent to which specific aspects of graduate research and teaching are disproportionately beneficial or challenging for students with depression. In this study, we did not explicitly examine whether there was a relationship between students’ identities and depression because of the small number of students in particular demographic groups. However, a theme that occurred rather infrequently (but is included in the Supplemental Material) is that discrimination or prejudice in the lab or academia could affect depression, which was reported exclusively by women and People of Color. As such, disaggregating whether gender and race/ethnicity predicts unique factors that exacerbate student depression is an important next step in understanding how to create more equitable and inclusive research and teaching environments for graduate students. Moreover, our sample included a significant number of students from ecology and evolutionary biology PhD programs, which may limit the generalizability of some findings. It is important to acknowledge potential subdisciplinary differences when considering how research may affect depression. Additionally, some of the factors that affect student depression, such as lack of teaching training and confidence in teaching, may be correlated with time spent in a graduate program. Future quantitative studies would benefit from examining whether the factors that affect student depression depend on the student’s subdiscipline and time spent in the graduate program. The primary focus of this study was the relationship between depression and graduate teaching/research. Many of the factors that emerged from the interviews are also associated with burnout ( Bianchi et al. , 2014 ; Maslach et al. , 2001 ). Burnout and depression are known to be highly related and often difficult to disaggregate ( Bianchi et al. , 2014 ). It was beyond the scope and design of this study to disaggregate which factors relate exclusively to the condition of burnout. Additionally, the interviews in this study were collected at a single time point. Thus, we are unable to differentiate between students who had depression before starting graduate school and students who experienced depression after starting graduate school. Future longitudinal studies could explore the effects of students’ experiences in research and teaching on their depression over time as well as on long-term outcomes such as persistence in graduate programs, length of time for degree completion, and career trajectory. This study identified a number of factors that graduate programs can address to benefit graduate student mental health, and we hope that future studies design and test interventions designed to improve the experiences of graduate students in teaching and research.

In this interview study of 50 life sciences PhD students with depression, we examined how graduate research and teaching affect students’ depressive symptoms. We also explored how depression affected graduate students’ teaching and research. We found that graduate students more commonly highlighted ways that research negatively affected their depression and ways that teaching positively affected their depression. Four overarching factors, three of which were related to both teaching and research, were commonly associated with student depression, including the amount of structure provided in research and teaching, failure and success, positive and negative reinforcement, and social connections and isolation. Additionally, graduate students identified depression as having an exclusively negative effect on their research, often hindering motivation, concentration, and self-esteem. However, they did note that depression made them more compassionate teachers, but also could cause them to have low energy or feel disconnected when teaching. This study provides concrete factors that graduate programs can target in hopes of improving the experiences of life sciences PhD students with depression.

Important Note

There are resources available if you or someone you know is experiencing depression and want help. Colleges and universities often have crisis hotlines and counseling services designed to provide students, staff, and faculty with treatment for depression. These can often be found by searching the university website. Additionally, there are free 24/7 services such as Crisis Text Line, which allows you to text a trained live crisis counselor (text “CONNECT” to 741741; Text Depression Hotline, 2019 ), and phone hotlines such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). If you would like to learn more about depression or depression help and resources near you, visit the Anxiety and Depression Association of American website: https://adaa.org ( Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2019 ) and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance: http://dbsalliance.org ( Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2019 ).

Acknowledgments

We are incredibly grateful to the 50 graduate students who were willing to share their personal experiences with us. We thank Sara Brownell, Tasneem Mohammed, Carly Busch, Maddie Ostwald, Lauren Neel, and Rachel Scott for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this work. L.E.G. was supported by an NSF Graduate Fellowship (DGE-1311230). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

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PhD students’ mental health is poor and the pandemic made it worse – but there are coping strategies that can help

Senior Lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning, The Open University

Assistant Professor in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, UCL

Disclosure statement

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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A pre-pandemic study on PhD students’ mental health showed that they often struggle with such issues. Financial insecurity and feelings of isolation can be among the factors affecting students’ wellbeing.

The pandemic made the situation worse. We carried out research that looked into the impact of the pandemic on PhD students, surveying 1,780 students in summer 2020. We asked them about their mental health, the methods they used to cope and their satisfaction with their progress in their doctoral study.

Unsurprisingly, the lockdown in summer 2020 affected the ability to study for many. We found that 86% of the UK PhD students we surveyed reported a negative impact on their research progress.

But, alarmingly, 75% reported experiencing moderate to severe depression. This is a rate significantly higher than that observed in the general population and pre-pandemic PhD student cohorts .

Risk of depression

Our findings suggested an increased risk of depression among those in the research-heavy stage of their PhD – for example during data collection or laboratory experiments. This was in contrast to those in the initial stages, or who were nearing the end of their PhD and writing up their research. The data collection stage was more likely to have been disrupted by the pandemic.

Our research also showed that PhD students with caring responsibilities faced a greatly increased risk of depression. In our our study , we found that PhD students with childcare responsibilities were 14 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than PhD students without children.

This does align with findings on people in the general UK population with childcare responsibilities during the pandemic. Adults with childcare responsibilities were 1.4 times more likely to develop depression or anxiety compared to their counterparts without children or childcare duties.

It was also interesting to find that PhD students facing the disruption caused by the pandemic who did not receive an extension – extra financial support and time beyond the expected funding period – or were uncertain about whether they would receive an extension at the time of our study, were 5.4 times more likely to experience significant depression.

Our research also used a questionnaire designed to measure effective and ineffective ways to cope with stressful life events. We used this to look at which coping skills – strategies to deal with challenges and difficult situations — used by PhD students were associated with lower depression levels. These “good” strategies included “getting comfort and understanding from someone” and “taking action to try to make the situation better”.

Interestingly, female PhD students, who were slightly less likely than men to experience significant depression, showed a greater tendency to use good coping approaches compared to their counterparts. Specifically, they favoured the above two coping strategies that are associated with lower levels of depression.

On the other hand, certain coping strategies were associated with higher depression levels. Prominent among these were self-critical tendencies and the use of substances like alcohol or drugs to cope with challenging situations.

A supportive environment

Creating a supportive environment is not solely the responsibility of individual students or academic advisors. Universities and funding bodies must play a proactive role in mitigating the challenges faced by PhD students.

By taking proactive steps, universities could create a more supportive environment for their students and help to ensure their success.

Training in coping skills could be extremely beneficial for PhD students. For instance, the University of Cambridge includes this training as part of its building resilience course .

A focus on good strategies or positive reframing – focusing on positive aspects and potential opportunities – could be crucial. Additionally, encouraging PhD students to seek emotional support may also help reduce the risk of depression.

Another example is the establishment of PhD wellbeing support groups , an intervention funded by the Office for Students and Research England Catalyst Fund .

Groups like this serve as a platform for productive discussions and meaningful interactions among students, facilitated by the presence of a dedicated mental health advisor.

Our research showed how much financial insecurity and caring responsibilities had an effect on mental health. More practical examples of a supportive environment offered by universities could include funded extensions to PhD study and the availability of flexible childcare options.

By creating supportive environments, universities can invest in the success and wellbeing of the next generation of researchers.

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Cassie M Hazell

January 12th, 2022, is doing a phd bad for your mental health.

9 comments | 77 shares

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Poor mental health amongst PhD researchers is increasingly being recognised as an issue within higher education institutions. However, there continues to be unanswered questions relating to the propensity and causality of poor mental health amongst PhD researchers. Reporting on a new comparative survey of PhD researchers and their peers from different professions, Dr Cassie M Hazell and Dr Clio Berry find that PhD researchers are particularly vulnerable to poor mental health compared to their peers. Arguing against an inherent and individualised link between PhD research and mental health, they suggest institutions have a significant role to play in reviewing cultures and working environments that contribute to the risk of poor mental health.

Evidence has been growing in recent years that mental health difficulties are common amongst PhD students . These studies understandably have caused concern in academic circles about the welfare of our future researchers and the potential toxicity of academia as a whole. Each of these studies has made an important contribution to the field, but there are some key questions that have thus far been left unanswered:

• Is this an issue limited to certain academic communities or countries?
• Do these findings reflect a PhD-specific issue or reflect the mental health consequences of being in a graduate-level occupation?
• Are the mental health difficulties reported amongst PhD students clinically meaningful?

We attempted to answer these questions as part of our Understanding the mental health of DOCtoral researchers (U-DOC) survey. To do this we surveyed more than 3,300 PhD students studying in the UK and a control group of more than 1,200 matched working professionals about their mental health. In our most recent paper , we compared the presence and severity of mental health symptoms between these two groups. Using the same measures as are used in the NHS to assess symptoms of depression and anxiety, we found that PhD students were more likely to meet criteria for a depression and/or anxiety diagnosis and have more severe symptoms overall. We found no difference between these groups in terms of their overall suicidality. However, survey responses corresponding to past suicidal thinking and behaviour, and future suicide intent were generally highly rated in both groups.

42% of PhD students reported that they believed having a mental health problem during your PhD is the norm

We also asked PhD students about their perceptions and lived experience of mental health. Sadly, 42% of PhD students reported that they believed having a mental health problem during your PhD is the norm. We also found similar numbers saying they have considered taking a break from their studies for mental health reasons, with 14% actually taking a mental health-related break. Finally, 35% of PhD students have considered ending their studies altogether because of their mental health.

We were able to challenge the working theory that the reason for our findings is that those with mental health difficulties are more likely to continue their studies at university to the doctoral level. In other words, the idea that doing a PhD doesn’t in any way cause mental health problems and these results are instead the product of pre-existing conditions. Contrary to this notion, we found that PhD students were not more likely than working professionals to report previously diagnosed mental health problems, and if anything, when they had mental health problems, these started later in life than for the working professionals. Additionally, we found that our results regarding current depression and anxiety symptoms remained even after controlling for a history of mental health difficulties.

The findings from this paper and our other work on the U-DOC project  has highlighted that PhD students seem to be particularly vulnerable to experiencing mental health problems. We found several factors to be key predictors of this poor mental health ; specifically not having interests and relationships outside of PhD studies, students’ perfectionism, impostor thoughts, their supervisory relationship, isolation, financial insecurity and the impact of stressors outside of the PhD .

the current infrastructure, systems and practices in most academic institutions, and in the wider sector, are increasing PhD students’ risk of mental health problems and undermining the potential joy of pursuing meaningful and exciting research

So, does this mean that doing a PhD is bad for your mental health? Not necessarily. There are several aspects of the PhD process that are conducive to mental health difficulties, but it is absolutely not inevitable. Our research (and our own experiences!) suggests that doing a PhD can be an incredibly positive experience that is intellectually stimulating, personally satisfying, and gives a sense of meaning and purpose. We instead believe a more appropriate conclusion to draw from our work is that the current infrastructure, systems and practices in most academic institutions, and in the wider sector, are increasing PhD students’ risk of mental health problems and undermining the potential joy of pursuing meaningful and exciting research.

Reducing this issue to the common rhetoric that “PhD studies cause mental health problems” is problematic for several reasons: Firstly, it ignores the many interacting moving parts at work here that variably increase and reduce risk of poor mental health across people, time, and place. Secondly, it does not acknowledge the pockets of incredibly good practice in the sector we can learn from and implement more widely. Finally, it reinforces the notion that poor mental health is the norm for PhD students which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy- and itself ignores the joy of pursuing a thesis in something potentially so personally meaningful. Nonetheless, a significant paradigm shift is needed in academia to reduce the current environmental toxins so that studying for a PhD can be a truly enjoyable and fulfilling process for all.

Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Impact of Social Science blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our  Comments Policy  if you have any concerns on posting a comment below.

Image Credit: Geralt via Pixabay. 

About the author

Dr Cassie M Hazell (she/her) is a lecturer in Social Sciences at the University of Westminster. Her research is on around mental health, with a special interest in implementation science. She is the co-founder of the international Early Career Hallucinations Research (ECHR) group and Early-Mid Career representative on the Research Council at her institution.

Dr Clio Berry is a Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Evaluation and Improvement in the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She is interested in the application of positive and social psychology approaches to mental health problems and social outcomes for young people and students. Her work spans identification of risk and resilience factors in predicting mental health and social problems and their outcomes, and in the development and evaluation of clinical and non-clinical interventions.

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My own experience of doing a PhD (loneliness, the lack of routine, imposter syndrome) has led to my discouraging my daughter, who has a history of mental health issues, from considering it at the moment, despite her having the academic aptitude and even a topic. I would hazard a guess that the problems are worse in the humanities than in the applied sciences, where most PhD students tend to work as part of research teams and be well supported in more structured environments.

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Fascinating research… I had a terrible PhD, but most of the mental health issues arose after the fact. If you ever conducted another survey it would be interesting to include those who had recently finished a PhD.

Looking at your follow up BJPsyche paper, I noticed you haven’t gone into the correlation between subject and mental health. I’d be interested to know how sciences vs humanities compared.

I see that your work is very restrained in discussing the causes of mental health issues, and I’m sure you have plenty of hypothesis. In my experience, a key factor is that there is no mechanism to hold supervisors to account for the quality of their supervision. (Linking to the point above, I believe in the sciences supervisors with poor outcomes do suffer repetitional damage – not so in the humanities.)

I’d also add that the UK’s Viva system, which I believe is unique globally, is a recipe for disaster – years of work evaluated over the course of just a couple of hours by examiners who, again, are not held accountable in any way.

I wrote my experience up here: https://medium.com/the-faculty/i-had-a-brutal-phd-viva-followed-by-two-years-of-corrections-here-is-what-i-learned-about-vivas-5e81175aa5d

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What can universities do to support the well-being and mental health of postgraduate researchers? February 1st, 2022

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Managing While and Post-PhD Depression And Anxiety: PhD Student Survival Guide

Embarking on a PhD journey can be as challenging mentally as it is academically. With rising concerns about depression among PhD students, it’s essential to proactively address this issue. How to you manage, and combat depression during and after your PhD journey?

In this post, we explore the practical strategies to combat depression while pursuing doctoral studies.

From engaging in enriching activities outside academia to finding supportive networks, we describe a variety of approaches to help maintain mental well-being, ensuring that the journey towards academic excellence doesn’t come at the cost of your mental health.

How To Manage While and Post-Phd Depression

Why PhD Students Are More Likely To Experience Depression Than Other Students

The journey of a PhD student is often romanticised as one of intellectual rigour and eventual triumph.

However, beneath this veneer lies a stark reality: PhD students are notably more susceptible to experiencing depression and anxiety.

This can be unfortunately, quite normal in many PhD students’ journey, for several reasons:

Grinding Away, Alone

Imagine being a graduate student, where your day-to-day life is deeply entrenched in research activities. The pressure to consistently produce results and maintain productivity can be overwhelming. 

For many, this translates into long hours of isolation, chipping away at one’s sense of wellbeing. The lack of social support, coupled with the solitary nature of research, often leads to feelings of isolation.

Mentors Not Helping Much

The relationship with a mentor can significantly affect depression levels among doctoral researchers. An overly critical mentor or one lacking in supportive guidance can exacerbate feelings of imposter syndrome.

Students often find themselves questioning their capabilities, feeling like they don’t belong in their research areas despite their achievements.

Nature Of Research Itself

Another critical factor is the nature of the research itself. Students in life sciences, for example, may deal with additional stressors unique to their field.

Specific aspects of research, such as the unpredictability of experiments or the ethical dilemmas inherent in some studies, can further contribute to anxiety and depression among PhD students.

Competition Within Grad School

Grad school’s competitive environment also plays a role. PhD students are constantly comparing their progress with peers, which can lead to a mental health crisis if they perceive themselves as falling behind.

This sense of constant competition, coupled with the fear of failure and the stigma around mental health, makes many hesitant to seek help for anxiety or depression.

How To Know If You Are Suffering From Depression While Studying PhD?

If there is one thing about depression, you often do not realise it creeping in. The unique pressures of grad school can subtly transform normal stress into something more insidious.

As a PhD student in academia, you’re often expected to maintain high productivity and engage deeply in your research activities. However, this intense focus can lead to isolation, a key factor contributing to depression and anxiety among doctoral students.

Changes in Emotional And Mental State

You might start noticing changes in your emotional and mental state. Feelings of imposter syndrome, where you constantly doubt your abilities despite evident successes, become frequent.

This is especially true in competitive environments like the Ivy League universities, where the bar is set high. These feelings are often exacerbated by the lack of positive reinforcement from mentors, making you feel like you don’t quite belong, no matter how hard you work.

Lack Of Pleasure From Previously Enjoyable Activities

In doctoral programs, the stressor of overwork is common, but when it leads to a consistent lack of interest or pleasure in activities you once enjoyed, it’s a red flag. This decline in enjoyment extends beyond one’s research and can pervade all aspects of life.

The high rates of depression among PhD students are alarming, yet many continue to suffer in silence, afraid to ask for help or reveal their depression due to the stigma associated with mental health issues in academia.

Losing Social Connections

Another sign is the deterioration of social connections. Graduate student mental health is significantly affected by social support and isolation.

You may find yourself withdrawing from friends and activities, preferring the solitude that ironically feeds into your sense of isolation.

Changes In Appetite And Weight

Changes in appetite and weight can be a significant indicator of depression. As they navigate the demanding PhD study, students might experience fluctuations in their eating habits.

Some may find themselves overeating as a coping mechanism, leading to weight gain. Others might lose their appetite altogether, resulting in noticeable weight loss.

These changes are not just about food; they reflect deeper emotional and mental states.

Such shifts in appetite and weight, especially if sudden or severe, warrant attention as they may signal underlying depression, a common issue in the high-stress environment of PhD studies.

Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

PhD students grappling with depression often feel immense pressure to excel academically while battling isolation and imposter syndrome. Lacking adequate mental health support, some turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms like substance abuse. These may include:

• Overeating, 
• And many more.

These provide temporary relief from overwhelming stress and emotional turmoil. However, such methods can exacerbate their mental health issues, creating a vicious cycle of dependency and further detachment from healthier coping strategies and support systems.

It’s essential for PhD students experiencing depression to recognise these signs and seek professional help. Resources like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline are very helpful in this regard.

Suicidal Thoughts Or Attempts

Suicidal thoughts or attempts may sound extreme, but they can happen in PhD studies. This is because of the high-pressure environment of PhD studies.

Doctoral students, often grappling with intense academic demands, social isolation, and imposter syndrome, can be susceptible to severe mental health crises.

When the burden becomes unbearable, some may experience thoughts of self-harm or suicide as a way to escape their distress. These thoughts are a stark indicator of deep psychological distress and should never be ignored.

It’s crucial for academic institutions and support networks to provide robust mental health resources and create an environment where students feel safe to seek help and discuss their struggles openly.

How To Prevent From Depression During And After Ph.D?

A PhD student’s experience is often marked by high rates of depression, a concern echoed in studies from universities like the University of California and Arizona State University. If you are embarking on a PhD journey, make sure you are aware of the issue, and develop strategies to cope with the stress, so you do not end up with depression. 

Engage With Activities Outside Academia

One effective strategy is engaging in activities outside academia. Diverse interests serve as a lifeline, breaking the monotony and stress of grad school. Some activities you can consider include:

• Social gatherings.

These activities provide a crucial balance. For instance, some students highlighted the positive impact of adopting a pet, which not only offered companionship but also a reason to step outside and engage with the world.

Seek A Supportive Mentor

The role of a supportive mentor cannot be overstated. A mentor who adopts a ‘yes and’ approach rather than being overly critical can significantly boost a doctoral researcher’s morale.

This positive reinforcement fosters a healthier research environment, essential for good mental health.

Stay Active Physically

Physical exercise is another key element. Regular exercise has been shown to help cope with symptoms of moderate to severe depression. It’s a natural stress reliever, improving mood and enhancing overall wellbeing. Any physical workout can work here, including:

• Brisk walking
• Swimming, or
• Gym sessions.

Seek Positive Environment

Importantly, the graduate program environment plays a critical role. Creating a community where students feel comfortable to reveal their depression or seek help is vital.

Whether it’s through formal support groups or informal peer networks, building a sense of belonging and understanding can mitigate feelings of isolation and imposter syndrome.

This may be important, especially in the earlier stage when you look and apply to universities study PhD . When possible, talk to past students and see how are the environment, and how supportive the university is.

Choose the right university with the right support ensures you keep depression at bay, and graduate on time too.

Remember You Have The Power

Lastly, acknowledging the power of choice is empowering. Understanding that continuing with a PhD is a choice, not an obligation. If things become too bad, there is always an option to seek a deferment, pause. You can also quit your studies too.

Work on fixing your mental state, and recover from depression first, before deciding again if you want to take on Ph.D studies again. There is no point continuing to push yourself, only to expose yourself to self-harm, and even suicide.

Wrapping Up: PhD Does Not Need To Ruin You

Combating depression during PhD studies requires a holistic approach. Engaging in diverse activities, seeking supportive mentors, staying physically active, choosing positive environments, and recognising one’s power to make choices are all crucial.

These strategies collectively contribute to a healthier mental state, reducing the risk of depression. Remember, prioritising your mental well-being is just as important as academic success. This helps to ensure you having a more fulfilling and sustainable journey through your PhD studies.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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The Research Whisperer

Just like the thesis whisperer – but with more money, post-phd depression.

The author of this post has chosen to remain anonymous and they hope that sharing their post-PhD challenges will be helpful for others who may be going through the same things, or who are supporting those who are.

For those who mentor or manage Early Career Researchers, especially new postdocs, it may be useful to have this post’s perspective in the contextual mix.

———————

When I submitted my thesis, I was hit by post-submission blues, which I was already aware of. What I didn’t expect was that the cloud didn’t lift with completion and graduation. I pretended otherwise, but the moments of genuine excitement and happiness were fleeting. I felt confused and ashamed, compounding my emotions.

Wondering if anyone else had ever felt this way, I Googled it. It turns out that I’m not alone in experiencing post-PhD depression and it is a lot more common than I thought.

Alarmingly, I had never heard of it.

This post shines some light on post-PhD depression so that we can better prepare PhD candidates for life during and after completion and provide the best support that we can to graduates.

The PhD journey changes people

Even if your experience was overwhelmingly positive, a PhD changes people by virtue of its length and nature. Completion can trigger reflection on your experience. It takes time to understand and accept how you’ve changed; this can be confronting and surface as an identity crisis.

Sacrifices made might be a source of pride, grief, or both. You may struggle with poorer mental and/or physical health. Catching up with ‘normal life’ can be nice but also a constant reminder of what you missed.

Processing the emotional and mental impact of a PhD can be particularly confronting for those who faced trauma during their PhD (whether coincidentally and/or because of it). Candidates might have turned to coping mechanisms that have become unhealth, in hindsight. When life suddenly changes due to completion, trauma can surface, as can the reality of the mechanisms used to cope.

There’s a lot of good-byes

For most people, the lifestyle, environment, and relationships that are part of the PhD journey change significantly or come to an end along with the PhD itself. The loss of things you loved can be intense and overwhelming. It can take time to grieve and let go.

The future is uncertain

PhD candidates who submit and graduate are often asked, ‘What next?’.

The post-doctoral job market is highly competitive, and non-academic career pathways can be difficult to establish. Graduates – even if they know what they want to do next – can struggle to find a suitable position, especially if they are part of a marginalised group and/or are primary caregivers.

There can be a range of internal and external pressures shaping decisions. Graduates might apply for particular roles purely because they feel that is what is expected of them. They might suffer from imposter syndrome, and question whether their success was deserved, and whether they are capable of continuing to succeed (‘maybe I just got lucky’). Others might feel trapped in a particular pathway due to their life circumstances.

What can help

It can really help to know you’re not alone! Acknowledge and accept what you feel: your feelings are valid.

Be gentle with yourself. Adjusting to life post-PhD takes time and that’s ok. It can help to do other things that you enjoy, like hobbies and making the most of relationships with family and friends. Engage in ways that feel safe and are less triggering. Set goals to help give you the buzz of completing things but be aware that it’s normal to be underwhelmed by these when compared to a PhD thesis.

When you can, reflect on what you enjoyed most throughout your PhD and investigate how you can continue to do that. Perhaps you loved data analysis, writing, interviewing participants, or tutoring students. These are all skills which are used in other career pathways, such as business analytics and teaching – the specifics might be different, but the process is the same.

There will be a range of opportunities that might be available to you which aren’t immediately obvious – so don’t be afraid to ask people, from your personal and academic circles, to point them out.

Of course, that can all be easier said than done. Consider talking about what you are going through with trusted family and friends and seeking professional help where appropriate. It’s ok to ask for support.

How to help someone else struggling with post-PhD depression

It’s nice to congratulate people when they submit and complete their degree but be mindful that they might not be feeling excited. Allow this to inform how you interact with people throughout their PhD journey.

For example, consider avoiding directly asking what they’re doing next, as this can be triggering (even if well-intentioned). Instead, consider asking, ‘What are you looking forward to next?’ – it gives space for the graduate to answer however they are comfortable. If you have a closer relationship with the graduate, you could also ask, ‘What were the highlights of your journey?’ and ‘How can we support you during this next stage?’.

Consider being open about your own post-PhD experience, too. Even a casual remark can help de-stigmatise post-PhD depression. Something like ‘I realised after I finished that I actually really missed working in the laboratory, so much so that I decided to volunteer to do outreach in high schools’, for example.

If possible, don’t cut off support immediately, whether it’s at a personal, professional, or institutional level.

Most importantly, prevention is better than a cure. It helps to encourage a strong identity for doctoral researchers beyond academia, including maintaining connections with their family, friends, and hobbies. Supervisors and other doctoral support teams can help by openly discussing work-life balance and encouraging it for their researchers.

Take the time to learn about mental health and the PhD journey, and implement best practice for yourself, your colleagues, and for PhD candidates more generally. The ‘Managing you mental health during your PhD: A survival guide’ by Dr Zoë Ayres is a fantastic resource for candidates and academics (and it’s available through many university libraries for free).

A PhD is a life-changing journey culminating in an extraordinary accomplishment. Everyone’s journey is different, including completion and what life after may bring – and that’s ok. We can all benefit from learning to better support each other regardless of what our journeys and futures look like.

Other reading

• The post-PhD blues (blogpost by Mariam Dalhoumi)
• Loss of identity: Surviving post-PhD depression (blogpost by Amy Gaeta)
• Post-PhD depression: Simple steps to recovery (video by Andy Stapleton)

Support services

• Mental health support agencies around the world (list compiled by CheckPoint)
• Lifeline Australia  – 13 11 14
• Head to health  (Australian government mental health site)
• Beyond Blue (Australia) offers short, over-the-phone counselling and a number of other resources.

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I had a depression for a year and is only just lifting and that was following my Masters degree- is this at all possible.,The degree was pretty intense because it was partially during Covid but can’t have been by far as stressful as a PhD

Thanks, Sophie. I’m sorry that you had such a rough time, and I hope that you are doing OK now. Thanks for sharing this with us. We all need support to get through these things, and I hope that you have the support that you need.

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Is doing a Ph.D. bad... for your mental wellbeing?

There is a growing body of research that indicates that doing a doctoral dissertation can be taxing on the mental health of PhD students, with depression, anxiety, or burnout as potential pitfalls. Is this problem real and, if so, how bad is it? In this post, I review several recent studies, some of which also offer insights about potential risk factors. This also kickstarts the whole idea of this blog, as a way to increase awareness about these difficulties, and offer practical tips and tricks to survive such a difficult period.

The other day I encountered a colleague at the university. When I first met her, more than two years ago, she seemed a very active, positive person, with an iron will and lots of initiative, a true go-getter. Now, when I talked to her, she still smiled, but a light inquiry into how things were going quickly revealed her many struggles, from unhelpful supervisors to problems with some of the software she has to use on a daily basis. Subsequent times we’ve met recently have led to similar exchanges: “everything is a problem”, is one of her most frequent sentences now.

Of course, many things may have happened for this person to change her attitude so starkly, but there is one thing I know for sure about her: she has been doing a PhD for the last two years. And I have been around PhD students long enough now, in different labs and different countries (including my own PhD) to know that this is not an isolated case. Interestingly, when I was a knowledge worker in the industry, such emotional downturns were relatively uncommon, so… what’s going on here?

Well, doing a PhD is hard . Anyone will tell you that, from the university professor, to the baker whose cousin is a lab rat. However, we often understand that as: oh, you have to be really smart to do it. But maybe it is not the smarts (or lack thereof) that makes it difficult.

I recently crossed this problem again in the generalist press , and apparently this topic appears in the news from time to time . It just seems to be largely ignored, or thought to be “the way things are”. But the first link above referenced a couple of concrete, recent research studies, so I decided to start digging… is there more to this than my subjective perceptions?

What the some research says

Apparently, some researchers must be getting worried about this, because I found quite a few interesting studies done in the last couple of years. For instance, a recent study on more than 2,000 graduate students from 26 countries 1 found that about 39% of them had moderate or severe depression symptoms (and 41% of them had moderate/severe anxiety symptoms). This does not mean much (who is not depressed these days with all the fake news and stuff?) until you read that the prevalence of depression symptoms in the general population is less than 6% 2 ! Another study done in Belgium last year 3 found similar rates of mental health symptoms (30%-50% depending on the severity) in more than 3,600 PhD students. There, they also do a comparison to understand how high that is: the prevalence of the same symptoms in “highly educated” general population is around 14%-27% 4 . In a study in Brazil, about 21% seemed to be the prevalence of major depression symptoms in graduate students 5 . Going a bit back in time, and to other countries, we find different numbers: 8.9% (France, 2010 6 ), 27% (Turkey, 2008 7 ), 13% (US, 2007 8 ), or 5% (Brazil again, in 1995 9 )… It is interesting how data varies quite a lot from country to country (but also for the general population, symptoms for depression in Brazil are 22% in the latest study, vs. the 6% of Germany), and over time (in the Brazilian 1995 study they mention a general population prevalence of 2%!). On top of that, other factors can be at play, like selection bias (not all studies are from cross-sectional or representative samples).

The studies also point out some factors that seem to correlate with such symptoms: gender, having children or a partner, perceived work-life balance, or quality of the student’s supervision. Some of these vary from study to study, but many seem to be common. There is quite a lot to be said about this topic of what seems to correlate with depression in doctorate students, so I will cover that separately in an upcoming post.

Then, the question remains: are you at a greater risk of depression if you do a PhD? It seems that it depends a lot on where you are in the world: in a country where people may have already other reasons for depression generally (like Brazil?), the number is quite close to the general population; but in a relatively “happy” country like Germany, the chances of being depressed seems to multiply by 5 or more if you are a PhD student!

In absolute terms, across studies, the most recent numbers seem to be that around 25-50% of students show moderate or severe depression symptoms. That’s one in four, up to one in every two students ! Certainly something to watch out for.

In practice - a call to action

And how is this useful, what can you do now that you know this?

• If you are a PhD student and you’re feeling a bit down (and chances are you have felt this in the past, or will in the future), at least know that you are not alone . This is not to say: “yeah, this is normal, so buckle up and go on”. Mental wellbeing is just as important as physical health (but we talk much less about it, and it is a well-known taboo in many societies). If we start coughing and feeling dizzy, we try to self-diagnose (e.g., with a thermometer), and if it seems serious, we go to the doctor. Well, there are questionnaires like the PHQ-9 (used in many of the studies above), which you can take in order to get an idea of how bad it is. At the very least, talk to somebody, anybody you trust - and if it’s bad, go to your doctor, or an specialist!
• If you are friends or family with a PhD student, you can just keep a friendly eye on them , check in with them from time to time, maybe point them to this blog if you think this information can be useful for them. And if they mention many of the symptoms that appear in these self-tests, maybe suggest them to self-diagnose or see a doctor.
• If you are a supervisor, you can periodically interest yourself in your students’ morale and again suggest self-diagnosis or seeing a doctor if you think something is going on. If you think all this talk of depression is nonsense (“nobody cared about my depression when I did my PhD!"), think again: will anyone benefit if your student drops out (or worse) tomorrow? Your research won’t, for sure. In a later post I will also write about the whole students dropping out issue.
• If you are considering to do a PhD, think about this carefully, and consider yourself warned. True, thousands of people do PhDs successfully every year, but that does not mean there is no suffering on the way; a PhD can also be one of the happiest, most fulfilling episodes of your life (at least mine was so for the most part). Just be aware of the risks (see a later post for more about the risk factors and correlates). Be prepared.
• For me, personally, as a novice PhD supervisor, this has motivated me to learn more about these mental wellbeing issues, and other techniques and tools to help my students be more productive and (why not) happier during the PhD. I want to be prepared to help others. I will be documenting my discoveries in this blog, and I hope you will find them useful.

Learning about this is going to be a fun journey, feel free to come along!

In Nature, no less: Evans, T. M., Bira, L., Gastelum, J. B., Weiss, L. T., & Vanderford, N. L. (2018). Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education. Nature Biotechnology , 36 (3), 282–284. ↩︎

Although this number comes from a study done in Germany only: Kocalevent, R.-D., Hinz, A., & Brähler, E. (2013). Standardization of the depression screener Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in the general population. General Hospital Psychiatry , 35 (5), 551–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2013.04.006 ↩︎

Levecque, K., Anseel, F., Beuckelaer, A. D., Heyden, J. V. der, & Gisle, L. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy , 46 (4), 868–879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.02.008 ↩︎

How come highly-educated people are more depressed? A case of “ignorance is bliss”? Maybe we are not educating people in the right things? Interestingly, highly-educated employees (i.e., not working in universities) have lower prevalence (12%-25%). What is the university doing to people? That is the topic of a whole another post. ↩︎

Oliveira, Y. B. C., O., R. C. (preprint). Depression and University: The effect of studying on mental health in Brazilian students. Preprint retrieved November 24, 2018, from here . ↩︎

Verger, P., Guagliardo, V., Gilbert, F., Rouillon, F., & Kovess-Masfety, V. (2010). Psychiatric disorders in students in six French universities: 12-month prevalence, comorbidity, impairment and help-seeking. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 45 (2), 189–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0055-z ↩︎

Bayram, N., & Bilgel, N. (2008). The prevalence and socio-demographic correlations of depression, anxiety and stress among a group of university students. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 43 (8), 667–672. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-008-0345-x ↩︎

Eisenberg, D., Gollust, S. E., Golberstein, E., & Hefner, J. L. (2007). Prevalence and Correlates of Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidality Among University Students. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry , 77 (4), 534–542. https://doi.org/10.1037/0002-9432.77.4.534 ↩︎

Gorenstein, C., Pompéia, S., & Andrade, L. (1995). Scores of Brazilian University Students on the Beck Depression and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventories. Psychological Reports , 77 (2), 635–641. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1995.77.2.635 ↩︎

Luis P. Prieto

Luis P. is a Ramón y Cajal research fellow at the University of Valladolid (Spain), investigating learning technologies, especially learning analytics. He is also an avid learner about doctoral education and supervision, and he's the main author at the A Happy PhD blog.

Google Scholar profile

Alarming Increase of Depression and Anxiety Among the PhD and Post-doctoral Researchers

PhD and post-doctoral researchers are feeling exhausted, overworked, and are worried about their future. If this is how you are feeling, you are not alone. The stress and pressure of academic life can be relentless, leading to depression and anxiety. Disturbingly, it is becoming common for young researchers to battle with mental health issues. This is especially prevalent in life sciences and engineering. Why is this happening?

Why are Researchers Struggling?

The American author Zig Ziglar summed up what people thrive on well: “ Research indicates that employees have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.”

Researchers tend to be passionate and enthusiastic about their work. They want to make a meaningful contribution to their field. Therefore, the above quote describes them well. The factors that contribute to stress and lead to anxiety and depression are listed below. It comes as no surprise that researchers, by nature, try too hard and fall victim to these stresses .

• Extended hours: As you know, academia comes with a considerable amount of responsibility. As you progress up the academic ladder, your responsibilities increase. You must balance teaching, admin, and research. You spend evenings and weekends working to keep up.
• Mentorship Relationship : Many researchers feel unsupported by their PIs. Some PIs expect a lot from their researchers, or PIs themselves are overwhelmed and therefore unable to offer the required
• Future: Uncertainty about your career prospects for the future can be frustrating and worrying.
• Financial uncertainty: Often, in academia, researchers are underpaid and funds are available for short time periods, leading to financial insecurity.
• Frequent evaluation: The constant reports to faculty and funders put extra pressure on researchers.
• Competitive atmosphere: Resources are scarce. Therefore, the competition for funding is enormous. Postdocs and PhDs are under more pressure to be productive.
• Management style: Researchers are at higher risk of mental health issues if their lab culture is bureaucratic. People are happier when they are part of the decision process, especially at D. and postdoc level where one expects to run with a project.
• Mental wellbeing of University staff:  Emotional and physical exhaustion among the PIs, negatively impact the students under them.

Stress intensifies as things become urgent towards the end of your project. Your submission deadlines are looming, and your funds are coming to an end. It can be overwhelming to complete a project as well as plan your future at the same time.

Signs that your mental health is in trouble include:

• Disrupted sleep
• Cognitive impairment
• Mood changes
• Working long hours at night
• Emotional outbursts
• Eating disorders

Mental Wellbeing Studies

The stats are high. Research on the mental health of Ph.D. students showed that 32 % are likely to develop depression. A 2016 survey found that 41 % of PhDs and postdocs were anxious, and 39 % were depressed. This is not new news, in 2013 and 2014, similar studies found that about one-third of postdocs were struggling with their mental health.

Mentors can Help

If you are a PI or a supervisor, you understand first-hand the pressures that your researchers are under. Here are some tips to help your students :

• This is a great prevention strategy. Mentors should be aware of their student’s mental health and educate them about the risks and signs of anxiety and depression.
• Training: Mentors could benefit from training on this subject so that they can identify a student who is struggling and assist them.
• Career Advice: Future employment opportunities are worrying Therefore, mentors should inform students of the low prospects of securing an academic position. Furthermore, they should advise them to research alternative career paths as possible options at the start of their project. It becomes too stressful to find employment when your deadline is approaching.
• Compassionate and kind leadership: Listen to your students and put yourself in their shoes.
• Be inspirational to your researchers. This will help create a happy team.

Keep Your Mind Healthy

We all know what we should be doing to keep physically and mentally healthy . Let me remind you.

• Get enough sleep.
• Exercise regularly, relieve stress.
• Eat healthy food.
• Connect with friends and family.
• Get professional help to resolve stress and anxiety.
• Make time for things you enjoy.

Get Help – Speak Out

It is time to get help if you start thinking about harming yourself, you feel overwhelmed about things that you usually cope with, you rely on drugs or alcohol to feel better, you still feel down even if something good happens, you are unsure why you are feeling down or you struggle with daily tasks.

If you are struggling, consult your healthcare practitioner or University counseling program. Chances are you are one of many academics suffering from a mild mental disorder. When researchers do eventually get help, they wonder why they waited so long. It is amazing to know how much better you will function with your daily tasks.

Remember, there is life outside the lab!

Academia can be a rewarding career. You just need to know what you are in for, manage your stress and remember your life outside the lab. Most of all, understand that you are not alone, a lot of researchers are feeling the same, but possibly not talking about it. Postdocs who have spoken up about their struggles have had many responses from researchers in similar situations. If everyone who struggled with mental health issues spoke up, we would realize how prevalent it is. This would go a long way toward fighting the stigma associated with mental health struggles.

Have you noticed that you or your colleagues are struggling with mental wellbeing? Help us fight the stigma by speaking out in the comments section below.

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Improving mental health in academia by giving you a voice., loss of identity: surviving post-phd depression by amy gaeta.

Completing the biggest achievement of my life has left me in the most zombie, emotionally depleted state of my life. Immediately after defending my dissertation successfully, thereby securing my Ph.D. in English, I found myself soft crying into a pillow and trying to find enough stability to reply to all the “congratulations!” text messages pinging on my phone. This emotional release marked the start of what I’ll refer to as my post-PhD depression: a state of aimlessness, premature cynicism, and loss sparked by the contradictory realization that it is all over and yet there is so much more to do. It is like finishing a marathon after giving all you got only to realize you’ve agreed to compete in a triathlon every day for the rest of your career.

Graduate Life 

I knew that leaving graduate school would be difficult. I had structured my life around it for the past six years; relied upon it for various forms of emotional, logistical, and material support, including health insurance and an income. But, as anyone who has done it will tell you, grad school can also be hell. Researchers have demonstrated that students have similar challenging experiences at institutions around the world (Fogg, 2009; Keeler & Siegel, 2020). Many students report feeling overworked, underpaid, and invisible in the eyes of the university unless they can develop some research that bodes well for the institution. Even then, students often feel that are not truly valued. They see themselves as reduced to a flashy toy for the university to wave about. This experience is made even more difficult depending on factors such as your race, gender, class, and disability status. It is not an exaggeration to say that grad school can be a site of trauma, if not traumatic itself. 

The mental turmoil experienced by a significant number of graduate students has gained much more attention in recent years, largely due to grad students and newly minted PhDs speaking out about their experiences. Less discussed is what happens to our mental health after grad school—post-PhD depression. The depression is certainly compounded by the collapsing job market and unrealistic demands of higher education, but is likely not caused by them (Fogg, 2009; Bekkouche, Schmid, & Carliner, 2022; Fernandez, 2019). Rather, I believe post-PhD depression stems from something deeper: a crisis of purpose, particularly the sense of loss that accompanies the end of a time of accomplishment and security. Our desire for purpose is human, and our purpose comes to shape who we are and how we are seen. If leaving grad school threatens our sense of purpose, that does not mean we need to find a new purpose. Rather, we need to interrogate why our sense of purpose—a determinant of who we are—is tethered to our position in an academic institution.

I am writing this blog post amid the height of this depressive episode with the hope of capturing the apathy and restlessness that accompanies it as I wallow in the grey area between grad school and academia. I also chose to write this now because I wanted to spare readers yet another narrative of inspiration or toxic resilience, or some other cliché that encourages people to tamper down their messy, ambivalent feelings and put on a happy, strong face.   

Sacrifice & The Self

Many grad school students have spent anywhere from 3 to 12 years of their early adult years in higher education. It is common for people to attend grad school immediately after finishing their MA or undergrad degree, which they probably completed right after graduating high school. At the time of my writing this, I am 29 and for the first time in 25 years, I am not a student in an educational institution. I have few memories of myself before school. Without ignoring that such a robust, long education is a massive privilege resulting from my race, class, and social situation, being in school so long does things to one’s ability to cultivate a strong sense of self. ‘Student’ and later one’s research areas, become a convenient explanation and stand-in for who you are . Your professional development and academic successes motivate the formation of this identity, while, at the same time, every dose of imposter syndrome and minor setback feels like a personal failure.

Academic culture promotes and celebrates a full body and mind self-sacrifice to the academy, one that begins in grad school. Whereas undergrad is a more social journey bound up in coming-of-age tropes and questions about identity, grad school is more of a personal and intellectual journey, one that entrenches itself in your psyche and wears down your self-esteem like a stone sitting right before an endless motion of rough waves. Grad school is quite lonely. There is no time to engage in campus culture beyond your home department. You’re told that you’re there to work, professionalize, and research. Soon, your entire life becomes structured around earning a degree and swinging through all the hoops—conferences, teaching, research awards, guest lectures, etc.—that you’re told you also need to succeed. In my first semester, I was working, studying, writing, reading, or in classes for at least 70 hours a week. Precisely due to the consuming design of grad school and academia, having it suddenly end can leave one feeling lost at sea. 

Because of the academy’s emphasis on productivity and structure, without grad school, I have been aimless. Not just “what am I going to do next” type-of-aimless, but “browse the cereal aisle at 11pm on a Tuesday” type-of-aimless. I cry a lot at tiny things. Each morning I wake up afraid at the prospect of how to get through the day. No hobby interests or fulfills me. I cannot access affordable mental health care because my health insurance ended immediately after graduation. People kept congratulating me and asking how I’m celebrating. I creak out a rehearsed monologue about ‘taking time for myself.’ While I want to celebrate this achievement, it is hard to look at it as an achievement after witnessing so many colleagues be pushed out of grad school due to the demands it put on their physical and mental health. I am proud of my Ph.D. I am not proud of what I allowed myself to go through to earn this degree.

In this state, I feel like I’m meeting a former version of myself for the first time in years. All the emotions, ideas, habits, desires, and fears that I repressed to survive grad school are now foaming at my mouth, emerging all at once like a geyser that’s been trapped by a glacier. I feel like I lost something, but the loss cannot be fully grasped or mourned. I also feel like I want something, but the desires cannot be fully wanted or realized. Any attempt to end my stay in this grey area is met with fear. At least fear is a feeling I can understand, something I can process and turn into knowledge. 

How to Prepare

After years of mentoring younger grad students and reflecting on my own missteps, I’ve come to realize what I wish I did differently and that I could have better prepared myself. Healing from grad school brings challenges in its own right, like accessing mental health care or a stable, supportive home. But neither of these promises to soothe the real wound here—your relationship with academia and your relationship with yourself. To address these relationships, you need to make an active effort to learn who you are without academia. This is best done early on, something that you practice on a micro and macro level. 

• Ground yourself in multiple places . The first piece of advice I give to every new grad student is to make friends and hobbies outside of the university; ideally, these are each non-academic. In my experience, these are people and things that bring you joy and support your self-worth. The more you structure your life around grad school, the more power it has over you, and thus the harder the blow will be when you leave it.
• De-romanticize grad school . Multiple things can be true at once. Grad school may offer you world-class learning resources and introduce you to some of the best friends you’ll ever make, but it will likely also put you in financial hardship and create mental distress at times. It can make and break you at once. Hold these contradictory images in the front of your mind. Once you have a clear, realistic image of grad school, you can begin to see your life without it, or at least, your value centered around it. 
• Return to what made you love your field . You were likely excited to go to grad school because you wanted to solve a problem, make a discovery, or push a research area to new heights. Is it not uncommon to have changed interests during grad school or to fall out of love with your thesis topic. You may even hate or resent it. Try to reclaim the joy or excitement that your research first brought you. Doing this will help you to remember yourself before grad school and recognize that you do not need an institution to learn and create.
• Sit with difficult emotions . Let yourself cry, scream, throw things, cry some more, and whatever else wants to crawl out of you. Do this as much as possible. Find a place where you can express these emotions without judgment or forced positivity. No matter what anyone says, you are not ungrateful for having complicated or even negative feelings toward grad school and your Ph.D. I have personally found that repressing your emotions will ensure a breakdown or worse.
• Leave your future open. Part of the misery comes from the pressure of trying to reach a future that may never materialize. I am not just talking about the academic job market or even a job at all. I am talking about how academic culture limits our imagination of the future by showing us a few pathways for how we can use our degrees and build a life. The more that you can see that the future remains wide open, the more that you can see graduating and aimlessness as forms of freedom. 

I have no idea how long this will last or how it will end. A part of me wonders if this depression is covering up a greater fear: the exhaustion does not end. A professor of mine once said grad school would be the best deal you get in academia, and while I want this to be bullshit, the current state of the job market and neoliberalization of the university does not give me much hope that he is wrong. I figure then that what I can take comfort in is that I do and can exist beyond the university.

Reference List

Bekkouche, N. S., Schmid, R. F., & Carliner, S. (2022). ‘Simmering Pressure:’ How Systemic Stress Impacts Graduate Student Mental Health.  Performance Improvement Quarterly ,  34 (4), 547-572.

Fernandez, M., Sturts, J., Duffy, L. N., Larson, L. R., Gray, J., & Powell, G. M. (2019). Surviving and thriving in graduate school.  SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education ,  34 (1), 3-15.

Fogg, P. (2009). Grad-school blues.  Chronicle of higher education ,  55 (24), B12-B16.

Dr. Amy Gaeta (she/they) is a scholar and poet of disability, gender, and technology. She is an incoming postdoc in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she is developing her first scholarly monograph. Broadly, her work focuses on questions about desire, ability, and the nature of the human in the context of high-tech militarization, medicine, and lifestyles. Her first chapbook The Andy Poems (2021) was published by Red Mare Press, and her second poetry book, Prosthetics & Other Organs is forthcoming on Dancing Girl Press. She regularly discusses all of this on Twitter @GaetaAmy

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The Savvy Scientist

Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

PhD Burnout: Managing Energy, Stress, Anxiety & Your Mental Health

PhDs are renowned for being stressful and when you add a global pandemic into the mix it’s no surprise that many students are struggling with their mental health. Unfortunately this can often lead to PhD fatigue which may eventually lead to burnout.

In this post we’ll explore what academic burnout is and how it comes about, then discuss some tips I picked up for managing mental health during my own PhD.

Please note that I am by no means an expert in this area. I’ve worked in seven different labs before, during and after my PhD so I have a fair idea of research stress but even so, I don’t have all the answers.

If you’re feeling burnt out or depressed and finding the pressure too much, please reach out to friends and family or give the Samaritans a call to talk things through.

Note – This post, and its follow on about maintaining PhD motivation were inspired by a reader who asked for recommendations on dealing with PhD fatigue. I love hearing from all of you, so if you have any ideas for topics which you, or others, could find useful please do let me know either in the comments section below or by getting in contact . Or just pop me a message to say hi. 🙂

This post is part of my PhD mindset series, you can check out the full series below:

• PhD Burnout: Managing Energy, Stress, Anxiety & Your Mental Health (this part!)
• PhD Motivation: How to Stay Driven From Cover Letter to Completion
• How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Studying

What is PhD Burnout?

Whenever I’ve gone anywhere near social media relating to PhDs I see overwhelmed PhD students who are some combination of overwhelmed, de-energised or depressed.

Specifically I often see Americans talking about the importance of talking through their PhD difficulties with a therapist, which I find a little alarming. It’s great to seek help but even better to avoid the need in the first place.

Sadly, none of this is unusual. As this survey shows, depression is common for PhD students and of note: at higher levels than for working professionals.

All of these feelings can be connected to academic burnout.

The World Health Organisation classifies burnout as a syndrome with symptoms of:

– Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; – Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; – Reduced professional efficacy. Symptoms of burnout as classified by the WHO. Source .

This often leads to students falling completely out of love with the topic they decided to spend years of their life researching!

The pandemic has added extra pressures and constraints which can make it even more difficult to have a well balanced and positive PhD experience. Therefore it is more important than ever to take care of yourself, so that not only can you continue to make progress in your project but also ensure you stay healthy.

What are the Stages of Burnout?

Psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North developed a 12 stage model of burnout. The following graphic by The Present Psychologist does a great job at conveying each of these.

I don’t know about you, but I can personally identify with several of the stages and it’s scary to see how they can potentially lead down a path to complete mental and physical burnout. I also think it’s interesting that neglecting needs (stage 3) happens so early on. If you check in with yourself regularly you can hopefully halt your burnout journey at that point.

PhDs can be tough but burnout isn’t an inevitability. Here are a few suggestions for how you can look after your mental health and avoid academic burnout.

Overcoming PhD Burnout

Manage your energy levels, maintaining energy levels day to day.

• Eat well and eat regularly. Try to avoid nutritionless high sugar foods which can play havoc with your energy levels. Instead aim for low GI food . Maybe I’m just getting old but I really do recommend eating some fruit and veg. My favourite book of 2021, How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reduce Disease , is well worth a read. Not a fan of veggies? Either disguise them or at least eat some fruit such as apples and bananas. Sliced apple with some peanut butter is a delicious and nutritious low GI snack. Check out my series of posts on cooking nutritious meals on a budget.
• Get enough sleep. It doesn’t take PhD-level research to realise that you need to rest properly if you want to avoid becoming exhausted! How much sleep someone needs to feel well-rested varies person to person, so I won’t prescribe that you get a specific amount, but 6-9 hours is the range typically recommended. Personally, I take getting enough sleep very seriously and try to get a minimum of 8 hours.

A side note on caffeine consumption: Do PhD students need caffeine to survive?

In a word, no!

Although a culture of caffeine consumption goes hand in hand with intense work, PhD students certainly don’t need caffeine to survive. How do I know? I didn’t have any at all during my own PhD. In fact, I wrote a whole post about it .

By all means consume as much caffeine as you want, just know that it doesn’t have to be a prerequisite for successfully completing a PhD.

Maintaining energy throughout your whole PhD

• Pace yourself. As I mention later in the post I strongly recommend treating your PhD like a normal full-time job. This means only working 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday. Doing so could help realign your stress, anxiety and depression levels with comparatively less-depressed professional workers . There will of course be times when this isn’t possible and you’ll need to work longer hours to make a certain deadline. But working long hours should not be the norm. It’s good to try and balance the workload as best you can across the whole of your PhD. For instance, I often encourage people to start writing papers earlier than they think as these can later become chapters in your thesis. It’s things like this that can help you avoid excess stress in your final year.
• Take time off to recharge. All work and no play makes for an exhausted PhD student! Make the most of opportunities to get involved with extracurricular activities (often at a discount!). I wrote a whole post about making the most of opportunities during your PhD . PhD students should have time for a social life, again I’ve written about that . Also give yourself permission to take time-off day to day for self care, whether that’s to go for a walk in nature, meet friends or binge-watch a show on Netflix. Even within a single working day I often find I’m far more efficient when I break up my work into chunks and allow myself to take time off in-between. This is also a good way to avoid procrastination!

Reduce Stress and Anxiety

During your PhD there will inevitably be times of stress. Your experiments may not be going as planned, deadlines may be coming up fast or you may find yourself pushed too far outside of your comfort zone. But if you manage your response well you’ll hopefully be able to avoid PhD burnout. I’ll say it again: stress does not need to lead to burnout!

Everyone is unique in terms of what works for them so I’d recommend writing down a list of what you find helpful when you feel stressed, anxious or sad and then you can refer to it when you next experience that feeling.

I’ve created a mental health reminders print-out to refer to when times get tough. It’s available now in the resources library (subscribe for free to get the password!).

Below are a few general suggestions to avoid PhD burnout which work for me and you may find helpful.

• Exercise. When you’re feeling down it can be tough to motivate yourself to go and exercise but I always feel much better for it afterwards. When we exercise it helps our body to adapt at dealing with stress, so getting into a good habit can work wonders for both your mental and physical health. Why not see if your uni has any unusual sports or activities you could try? I tried scuba diving and surfing while at Imperial! But remember, exercise doesn’t need to be difficult. It could just involve going for a walk around the block at lunch or taking the stairs rather than the lift.
• Cook / Bake. I appreciate that for many people cooking can be anything but relaxing, so if you don’t enjoy the pressure of cooking an actual meal perhaps give baking a go. Personally I really enjoy putting a podcast on and making food. Pinterest and Youtube can be great visual places to find new recipes.
• Let your mind relax. Switching off is a skill and I’ve found meditation a great way to help clear my mind. It’s amazing how noticeably different I can feel afterwards, having not previously been aware of how many thoughts were buzzing around! Yoga can also be another good way to relax and be present in the moment. My partner and I have been working our way through 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene on Youtube and I’d recommend it as a good way to ease yourself in. As well as being great for your mind, yoga also ticks the box for exercise!
• Read a book. I’ve previously written about the benefits of reading fiction * and I still believe it’s one of the best ways to relax. Reading allows you to immerse yourself in a different world and it’s a great way to entertain yourself during a commute.

* Wondering how I got something published in Science ? Read my guide here .

Talk It Through

• Meet with your supervisor. Don’t suffer in silence, if you’re finding yourself struggling or burned out raise this with your supervisor and they should be able to work with you to find ways to reduce the pressure. This may involve you taking some time off, delegating some of your workload, suggesting an alternative course of action or signposting you to services your university offers.

Also remember that facing PhD-related challenges can be common. I wrote a whole post about mine in case you want to cheer yourself up! We can’t control everything we encounter, but we can control our response.

A free self-care checklist is also now available in the resources library , providing ideas to stay healthy and avoid PhD burnout.

Top Tips for Avoiding PhD Burnout

On top of everything we’ve covered in the sections above, here are a few overarching tips which I think could help you to avoid PhD burnout:

• Work sensible hours . You shouldn’t feel under pressure from your supervisor or anyone else to be pulling crazy hours on a regular basis. Even if you adore your project it isn’t healthy to be forfeiting other aspects of your life such as food, sleep and friends. As a starting point I suggest treating your PhD as a 9-5 job. About a year into my PhD I shared how many hours I was working .
• Reduce your use of social media. If you feel like social media could be having a negative impact on your mental health, why not try having a break from it?
• Do things outside of your PhD . Bonus points if this includes spending time outdoors, getting exercise or spending time with friends. Basically, make sure the PhD isn’t the only thing occupying both your mental and physical ife.
• Regularly check in on how you’re feeling. If you wait until you’re truly burnt out before seeking help, it is likely to take you a long time to recover and you may even feel that dropping out is your only option. While that can be a completely valid choice I would strongly suggest to check in with yourself on a regular basis and speak to someone early on (be that your supervisor, or a friend or family member) if you find yourself struggling.

I really hope that this post has been useful for you. Nothing is more important than your mental health and PhD burnout can really disrupt that. If you’ve got any comments or suggestions which you think other PhD scholars could find useful please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

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“My grief lies all within” — PhD students, depression & attrition

• 93 Comments

From November to March is prime time for academic burn-out in graduate programs — I’m convinced of that. Perhaps it’s a seasonal thing; it can be easy to sink into a trough of exhaustion and stress, and not climb out of it for months. But rather than just the seasonal doldrums, my sense is that clinical depression, extreme anxiety and other mental health issues are becoming more common in graduate programs as well as in undergraduate education.

I asked one fellow student her opinion of this, and she replied, “it seems like everyone I know in academia is depressed.” On another occasion when I was very unwell, I was told that “everyone” has some kind of breakdown during the PhD; my troubles were nothing to worry about!

Is this a serious structural (and normalized ) issue rather than an anecdotal one, and if so, why is no one discussing it? When I sampled the Twitterverse, I received many replies reinforcing and elaborating the impression that yes, this is a problem — perhaps now more than ever — and that it can’t be reduced to students’ individual propensities and “weaknesses.”

In the current context, there are plenty of structural issues that contribute to the PhD as a time when students are vulnerable to stress.

Within their programs, students face a more intense workload than in their undergraduate degrees, and they may for the first time be around students with as much academic aptitude as themselves. These factors can contribute to “imposter syndrome,” the sense that one is about to be “found out” for not really being smart enough. As adults being placed in a subordinate position, some PhD students experience a sense of infantilization alongside the conflicting expectation that they develop a professional identity.

In terms of the student’s academic experience, the PhD emphasizes a transition to autonomous work that is often a new challenge. The lack of structure, and unclear boundaries about responsibilities, mean that some students are unsure what help they “can” ask for from supervisors. This is compounded by the lengthy isolation from peers that often occurs in the later stages of research (in the humanities and social sciences at least).

Career-related pressures in academe have intensified in the face of recession and long-term political economic changes that have affected the university and its governance. Graduate programs in Canada and elsewhere have increased enrollments often without proportional increases to the tenured faculty who provide supervision, or to non-repayable funding. The shortage of funding can lead to student debt and other financial difficulties as well as more intense competition for grants and teaching positions, and pressure to “complete” sooner. Fewer tenured faculty means that students may need to compete for academic mentorship and support as well. And all these changes have helped to feed further competition in the form of a tightened market for academic (i.e. tenure-track faculty) jobs; this kind of competition can be depressing and stressful.

While only a relatively small proportion of PhD graduates obtain permanent faculty positions, in many PhD programs there is still a deeply-held assumption that students can or should strive to engage in research-oriented academic careers. Thus the definition of success tends to be rather narrow, making it easier to feel like a “failure.”

The culture of academic replication — the inculcation of certain academic goals above all others, in spite the “reality” of the larger job market for PhDs — has been roundly criticized , even compared to a cult . Taking on an awkward double stance, many students are engaging in a process of translation and re-valuation of themselves and their work that continues until long after the degree is over; some must overcome a long-held sense of exceptionalism with regards to their academic chances.

And of course, alongside the professional pressures there are also the so-called “personal” issues and events that affect everyone, and which can throw one’s entire degree (and life) off-track if they occur — a break up or divorce, for example, which can itself result from relationship problems triggered by the academic lifestyle.

A larger problem is not only the context described above (and its effects), but also the thickly oppressive silence that surrounds it. Not coincidentally, I think, there is a parallel silence around the issue of attrition . Considering the high rate of attrition from PhD programs and the cost of graduate education, you’d assume there would be a plenty of research on the reasons why students “drop out.” But according to Chris Golde (2000) we still don’t have much information on why students leave PhD programs, partly because PhD attrition “looks bad” for everyone involved (responsibility for this “failure” is usually transferred to the student). I wonder how many students simply leave due to mental health and related issues brought on or exacerbated by the psychological minefield of the PhD process — and how much of this is preventable.

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This has made me feel so much better! I suffer from isolation frequently as I commute into university. I’ve also had severe personal and PhD-related issues this year which has led to a complete meltdown on the work front. Fortunately, I think I’m dragging myself back together but it’s reassuring to know that this isn’t just me.

Melonie, thank you for posting this. I have struggled with depression for a few years now, and I think a lot of my fellow students suffer from anxiety and depression. Although my depression started before doing my phd, doing a phd hasn’t helped. As has been mentioned, grad students are often working alone, and I feel best when I’m working with other people. There is also a lot of competition involved– for teaching, TA, and RA positions, for scholarships, and for jobs (if you get through!). I’m sure there are many things that universities can do to improve the situation. I’m also wondering if there’s any connection with age and experience. I’m doing a second phd at the age of 50, and my experience now is a lot different than for my first phd.

Lovely, pointed article Melonie with some good insights. I also attended York. If you are still in a PhD program there I will assume you still aim to graduate and that you are getting sufficient support to be able to do so. I hope so. Kudos.

I think all of the factors you mention are right on the money. I also think the most important factors are those you’ve just scratched. You mention a “thickly oppressive silence” – wonderful phrase. But there are different qualities of that, and several contributing factors I believe. Which certainly does lead to frustration, doubt, depression and attrition. That is, in my experience the elephant- in-the-room was the biggest causative factor leading to incompletion, and I recognize that there are many related types of elephants.

I also recognize that the process of working through a PhD is MEANT to change a person, as a social rite of passage, and also as a personal growth experience. I suspect many students may not fully appreciate that (how could they, until they are through it?). AND that many faculty, alternately don’t appreciate that students are struggling with something MORE than the expected professional changes. In being unable or unwilling to relate to that, many faculty thus opt, like the Emperor with his new clothes, to honor the elephant in the room rather than their fellow human beings they are supposed to be mentoring.

Now, some students obviously do succeed in gaining their degree. And that certainly has something to do with their own unique abilities, including ability to navigate the particular stresses and circumstances of their personal PhD path. It also has to do with external circumstances, such as the quality of relationships that are in place with faculty which underlie (undermine) their ability to succeed in that particular situation. On the other hand (just as it is not true or humane to conclude that people who struggle economically are poor because of some assumed, inherent character flaw or laziness, etc. without recognizing situational factors), students who don’t succeed in gaining their PhD degree (or choose not to succeed at that task) also have various factors shaping their own unique outcomes. Each project is unique, requiring different research, financial and faculty resources that may not be as available for some students as for others for many reasons (only some of which are ethical or valid).

But relationships – that is, political alliances – are the elephant in the room that NOBODY ever talks about totally honestly or entirely openly. Some students simply will not enjoy access to faculty relationships and associated benefits that are healthy enough, substantial enough, and consistent enough to enable their success in the PhD completion task.

Structural problems? You bet. Cultural problems (i.e. the ‘cult’ mentality you mentioned) .. you bet. In my department, for example, here were faculty who would not speak with each other, let alone work together – even though (in my case) they were the appropriate and best people to have together on a supervisory committee. The result was that I spent several years in the program without HAVING a supervisory committee (with same expectations of progress) before I became too exhausted to cope with that dysfunction any longer. When I met privately with the Grad Director and mentioned the issue of depression, his response was to look away and not respond to the statement. The fact that this type of thing has become ‘normalized’ and certainly not confined to one ‘rogue’ department indicates a much deeper malaise.

How about the fact that tenure is a hangover of medieval times, reflecting theological structures when cleric-academics were assumed to provide an important social function, and protected from political reprisals, etc. The only other profession I know of with such tenure today is the judiciary, and for the same reasons. But academic tenure today has become the raison-detre for most professorial work – even though it carries little of the same risk as before, and provides social benefits that are often quite dubious (depending on how arcane one’s life work becomes). And it has skewed and deformed the entire process for both students and would-be career academics.

The fact that tenure – and indeed Departmental Reviews – are so heavily reliant on peers only worsens the fish-bowl effect and lack of accountability. How often have PhD students wanted to jump out of their chairs and scream about their ACTUAL experience of their program to external reviewers – yet for so many reasons find themselves bound by that invisible code of silence (even though it ends up facilitating their own marginalization further)? Very, VERY often I would wager.

None of this of course even takes account of pre-PhD experiences and relationships that provide the right kind of educational and social foundations, skill sets, persona & attitudes that best position people to adapt, survive and thrive in typical doctoral environments.

Anyway, it’s very sad. Five or six of the original eight in my own cohort have fallen away through the years and not finished … all good people, all good minds … left licking their wounds. Indeed, I think many good, otherwise healthy people end up becoming much less healthy by trying to adapt to what is too often a dysfunctional social environment that appears to be inherent in many doctoral programs. And that is more than a matter of challenging circumstances, healthy competition, or character-building experiences – it is a hidden scandal … a conspiracy of silence around corruption, ethical misconduct, conflicts of interest, and in the worst cases, breach of expectations/contract, and misappropriation of public resources.

Would be nice to see it cracked open one day.

The best to you; thanks for opening the window to let some air in 🙂

Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve during the postdoc stage. There is a brief period of euphoria during the writing, submission, and defense stages, but then it is a huge plummet from there.

I can identify with the worries raised in this a lot. I have a history of depression, am at the start of my second year of a part time PhD and am working full time while studying. I already feel worried about the state of my finances, whether I’m smart enough to do a PhD and whether I’ll get a job in academia at the end of it. But given my previous mental health issues I’m also just waiting for the (inevitable?) breakdown. It’s kind of terrifying.

Some Antidepressants Linked to More Weight Gain Than Others

July 2, 2024 – More than 1 in 10 people in the U.S. take antidepressant medications, although many people discontinue the drugs due to an array of side effects, including weight gain . But recent insights show that some antidepressants are linked to an increased chance of weight gain, compared to others. 

The findings of  a large new analysis from Harvard researchers could help guide treatment decisions to make people more likely to stay on the medicines and, ultimately, benefit from them. The new information is also important for people who want to take antidepressants but need to manage their weight due to conditions such as diabetes.

Published this week in the journal  Annals of Internal Medicine , the analysis included health records from more than 180,000 people ranging in age from 18 to 80 years old. The people were considered first-time users of antidepressants, and the researchers analyzed weight changes after 6, 12, and 24 months on the medicines. Eight drugs were evaluated, known by the brand names Celexa, Cymbalta, Effexor, Lexapro, Paxil, Prozac, Wellbutrin, and Zoloft. The results included people who took brand-name or generic versions of the drugs.

People taking Wellbutrin were the least likely to gain weight. Wellbutrin users were about 15% less likely to gain weight, compared to people taking Zoloft, which is the most commonly prescribed antidepressant. Weight gain was defined as an increase of 5% or more from a person’s weight when starting the medication.

The researchers noted that previous research had documented the low likelihood of weight gain among people taking Wellbutrin. They wrote that it may be related to Wellbutrin’s impact on neurotransmitters known as dopamine and norepinephrine, and the drug’s effects on a brain system called the hypothalamic melanocortin system, which is involved in appetite and energy balance.

People who took Celexa, Cymbalta, Effexor, Lexapro, or Paxil gained more weight on average, compared to people who took Zoloft. Taking Cymbalta, Lexapro, or Paxil was linked to a 10% to 15% higher risk of weight gain.

In 2020, 18% of U.S. adults reported having ever been  diagnosed with depression . Antidepressants are also commonly prescribed for people with other conditions, like anxiety or bipolar disorder.

Depression includes a wide range of life-altering symptoms, such as persistent sad or anxious moods, low energy, poor sleep, and physical changes. Not everyone with depression has suicidal thoughts, but the condition is linked to a significantly heightened risk of having thoughts and ideas about suicide.

Antidepressants work by changing the way the brain relays messages that can impact depression’s wide range of symptoms, from mood to appetite to sleep.

The researchers reported that more than half the people stopped taking the medications, no matter the brand, by the 6-month mark. Wellbutrin and its generic version had the highest 6-month adherence rate, at 41%.

“Patients and their clinicians often have several options when starting an antidepressant for the first time. This study provides important real-world evidence regarding the amount of weight gain that should be expected after starting some of the most common antidepressants,” lead study author Joshua Petimar, ScD, an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, said in a  statement . “Clinicians and patients can use this information, among other factors, to help decide on the right choice for them.”

If you or someone you care about is struggling, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. 

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Neuropathy very common, but underdiagnosed, study says

NEW YORK, May 8 (UPI) -- Neuropathy -- nerve damage that causes pain, numbness, weakness or tingling in the feet and hands -- is very common and underdiagnosed, a new study indicates.

The study, conducted through a partnership between the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Hurley Medical Center in Flint, was published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Advertisement

In some cases, neuropathy can eventually lead to falls, infections and even amputations, the study's authors noted.

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"Unfortunately, there is no disease-modifying treatment for neuropathy -- meaning the best that we can do for many people is trying to decrease their pain and prevent falls or infections from injury to their feet," Elafros said. Advertisement

Researchers assessed 169 people from an outpatient internal medicine clinic that serves primarily Medicaid patients in Flint, Mich. The participants, with an average age of 58, were 69% Black.

"Minority and low-income communities are often under-represented in clinical research," Elafros said, noting that "currently, the accepted prevalence rate for neuropathy is 13.5%. Yet, in our population, it was 73%."

Fewer than 20% of people with neuropathy were aware of their condition.

"This is a big problem because that means they are likely not doing the things that can prevent falls, infections and even eventual amputations," Elafros said.

One-half of those studied had diabetes, which can injure nerves throughout the body and result in neuropathy.

A total of 67% had metabolic syndrome -- defined by the presence of excess belly fat plus two or more of the following risk factors associated with neuropathy: high blood pressure, higher than normal triglycerides, high blood sugar and a low level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or "good" cholesterol.

A total of 73% of participants had neuropathy. Of these people, 75% had not been previously diagnosed. Almost 60% of those with neuropathy were experiencing pain. Of those with neuropathy, 74% had metabolic syndrome, compared to 54% of those who did not have it. Advertisement

After adjusting for other variables that could impact the risk of neuropathy, researchers found that people with metabolic syndrome were over four times more likely to have neuropathy than people without the syndrome.

"The big takeaway message of this work is that neuropathy is likely more common than we think," Elafros said. "By underdiagnosing neuropathy, we miss a valuable opportunity to counsel patients to improve their well-being."

Researchers also explored any connection between race and income and neuropathy, as few studies have delved into those issues. There was no link between low income and neuropathy.

Black people had a lower risk of neuropathy. They comprised 60% of participants with neuropathy and 91% of those without the condition.

The study was a joint effort between providers at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and researchers from the University of Michigan.

"One thing that I learned was how hard it can be to screen for neuropathy in a busy primary care clinic," Elafros said. "Our team is capitalizing on this collaboration to help improve care for neurologic diseases in places like Flint."

She added that "this study is just a snapshot in time at one clinic in Flint. It does not tell us how quickly people develop neuropathy in this clinic." In addition, it may not represent other parts of the city. Advertisement

The study received support from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

"It's an outstanding study and really important. Peripheral neuropathy is a widespread problem in the U.S. population," said Dr. David Herrmann, a professor of neurology and pathology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y., who was not involved in the research.

As many as 10% of people will develop neuropathy in their lifetime. This study suggests that peripheral neuropathy is even more frequent in minority and underserved groups, Hermann said.

The study presents an "incredible opportunity" to raise awareness that neuropathy is "a common consequence" of metabolic syndrome, including diabetes, obesity, abnormal blood lipids and high blood pressure, he said, adding that "this is clearly a public crisis."

Neuropathy is under-diagnosed because "symptoms often start off quietly in the background -- a little numbness or tingling in the feet, a little difficulty wiggling the toes, some trouble with balance or unexplained falls," said Dr. Maxwell Levy, an assistant professor of neurology and associate residency program director at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

"However, it can progress over months to years to be more disruptive and disabling. People should be sure to bring these symptoms to their doctor's attention, so they can be screened for medical conditions that cause neuropathy," Levy said. Advertisement

"There is no single blood test or imaging study that will diagnose neuropathy. A neurologist can perform a nerve conduction test to further characterize the subtype of a neuropathy or can determine if neuropathy is present in uncertain cases," he said.

It's important to diagnose and treat neuropathy appropriately as early in the condition's course as possible, said Dr. Vishakhadatta Mathur Kumaraswamy, an assistant professor of neurology and neuromuscular medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington.

"Delay in treatment of the underlying cause of neuropathy may lead to poorer outcomes in the form of incomplete recovery or permanent disability from weakness or gait imbalance," Kumaraswamy said. "It also increases the chances of potentially preventable complications, such as falls, joint deformities and nonhealing wounds."

The high prevalence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the study may not be completely representative of the patient population, said Dr. Ashley Weng, an assistant professor of neurology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J.

Participants were selected when they came to the clinic for routine care, so the study may skew toward sicker patients who seek help, Weng said. Also, she noted, "It is possible that those with symptoms of neuropathy were more interested in participating." Advertisement

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• CAREER BRIEF
• 26 March 2018

More than one-third of graduate students report being depressed

You have full access to this article via your institution.

PhD and master’s students worldwide report rates of depression and anxiety that are six times higher than those in the general public ( T. M. Evans et al. Nature Biotech. 36, 282–284; 2018 ). The report, based on the responses of 2,279 students in 26 nations, found that more than 40% of respondents had anxiety scores in the moderate to severe range, and that nearly 40% showed signs of moderate to severe depression. The high rates suggested by this study are alarming, says Teresa Evans, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the study’s lead author. She notes that students suffering from anxiety or depression might have been especially motivated to take the survey, which could have skewed the results. But she believes that the findings underscore the severity of the problem and the need for a response. Evans adds that universities should provide students with training to help them manage their time and cope with stress.

Nature 555 , 691 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-03803-3

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