Doctors-in-training face long, stressful hours, sleepless nights and a high risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. A study suggests online self-help behavior therapy could help.
Suicidal thoughts were much less common in new doctors who had four half-hour online sessions prior to their first year of post-graduate training, compared with those who got no therapy.
The sessions urged focusing on positive thoughts and activities, and not dwelling on stresses and failures.The study involved about 200 first-year medical residents from two U.S. universities. An earlier study found that suicidal thoughts increased almost four-fold early in residency.
The new results are published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
