Symptoms of depression in residents: a South Carolina Family Practice Research Consortium study

To determine correlations between residents' scores on psychological inventories and their demographics and personal histories.

The authors followed all family practice residents in South Carolina from July 1993 to January 1996. They invited the residents to take a battery of psychological inventories every July and January during the study. The inventories included the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). The participating residents also filled out personal and family history questionnaires at each test administration.

Of the 350 residents in family practice training during the study, 284 took the BDI at least once and 280 took the POMS at least once. Cross-sectional data indicated that 3% of those taking the BDI and 7% of those taking the POMS showed significant depressive or mood-disturbance symptoms, levels similar to those found in previous studies. Analyses found correlations between residents' descriptions of poor physical or emotional health, unhappy childhoods, current high stress in training, or doubt about specialty choice and high scores on the two inventories. No such correlation was found between high inventory scores and age, sex, race, duration of training, season of the year, exercise pattern, recent life events, income, or level of indebtedness.

Although the results of this study may not be generalizable, medical educators and those who counsel physicians during graduate training may want to take note of the correlations between certain answers to questions about personal history and higher levels of depression and mood disturbance as measured by psychological inventories.