THANKFULLY, ABOVE AVERAGE IS OVER:

[T]he way we train doctors may endanger their mental health. In a new systematic review and meta-analysis in JAMA that draws from 195 studies on depression among medical students, researchers found that 27 percent experienced depression or depressive symptoms, about three times higher than the general population.

Across studies, the researchers also found that 11 percent of medical students reported contemplating suicide.

This isn't the first analysis to find higher-than-average mental health issues among physicians in training. In 2015, another JAMA systematic review and meta-analysis on depression among medical residents found that 29 percent experienced depression -- about the same proportion as medical students.

Taken together, the research shows that about one in three residents or medical students are clinically depressed at some point during their training.

Things don't necessarily improve after residents get licensed. Doctors have higher rates of suicide on average. "The suicide rate among male physicians is 1.41 times higher than the general male population. And among female physicians, the relative risk is even more pronounced -- 2.27 times greater than the general female population," according to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. (There's no comprehensive data on how many medical students or residents take their own lives every year, but bleak anecdotes abound.)

The researcher behind the systematic reviews, Douglas Mata, agreed that the problem is bigger than individual doctors. "That the symptoms are so widespread," he said, "is indicative of systematic systemic problems, factors in the environment of medical school that are causing these issues."

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