Individual and organizational predictors of depression in general practitioners

High levels of stress and depression are seen in both general practitioners (GPs) and hospital doctors, and this has implications for patient care. It is therefore important to discover the individual and organizational causes of elevated symptoms so they can be tackled.

To discover the relative importance of individual characteristics measured 10 years earlier compared with current organizational stressors in predicting depression in GPs.

Longitudinal questionnaire study, using data from those of the original cohort of 318 medical students who are now GPs (n = 131), considering perceptions of current stressors and comparing through regression analyses the relative strength of early personality and mood with current organizational factors of sleep, hours worked, and practice size in predicting current depression levels.

There were 22 (17%) stressors scoring above threshold for depression. Relationships with senior doctors and patients are the main reported stressors, followed by making mistakes and conflict of career with personal life. The predictors of symptom levels varied for men and women. In men, depression and self-criticism as students, and current sleep levels; and in women, sibling rivalry and current alcohol use, were the main predictors: in men, 27% of the variance was accounted for by early dispositional factors alone compared with 14% in women. A model is suggested linking sleep loss with workplace stressors, self-critical cognitions, and depression.

Interventions can be made throughout training, targeting self-criticism and recognizing early depression, while later addressing the organizational stressors, particularly work relationships and sleep patterns.