The mental health of newly graduated doctors in Malta

Several studies have shown high rates of psychiatric morbidity in young doctors at various stages of their training (Paice, et al. 2002, Levine et al. 2006). Migration is also known to have an impact on emotional wellbeing (Bhugra 2004). Foreign doctors in Malta now make up over 30% of the junior doctor cohort. This is a new situation for trainers here.This study was carried out in part fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of Specialist Training in Psychiatry in Malta. This article focuses on the first part of the study: the quantitative analysis aimed to answer the following questions: 1. What are the rates of mental health problems amongst recently qualified doctors? 2. What are the factors associated with the increased rates of mental distress?

A quantitative cross-sectional analysis was carried out by means of self-report questionnaire including demographic details and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) (Goldberg 1972). This study was approved by the Health Ethics Committee (HEC23/12).

117 (78.5%) of junior doctors participated in this study. 70.9% were Maltese. 49.4% were found to have GHQ-28 scores of more than 6, indicating significant psychological distress. Further analyses revealed that lack of leisure time (p<0.001), uncertainty (p=0.009), migration (p=0.03) and being female (p=0.04) were significantly related to caseness.

As trainers and supervisors in medical education, it is important to be aware of the difficulties that young doctors face. These may include psychological distress, significant enough to reach caseness. Lack of leisure time seems to be an important factor which is possibly an area that can be easily tackled.