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Listening to Depression and Suicide Risk in Medical Students: the Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) Program

  • Empirical Report
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Abstract

Objective

A growing body of literature documents high rates of burnout, depression, and suicidal ideation among physicians and medical students. Barriers to seeking mental health treatment in this group include concerns about time, stigma, confidentiality, and potential career impact. The authors describe a 4-year trial of the Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) program, designed to increase mental health services utilization (MHSU) and decrease suicide risk (SR) as assessed by an Interactive Screening Program (ISP)at one US medical school.

Methods

Over a 4-year period, medical students were engaged in face-to-face, campus-wide, educational group programs and were invited to complete an individual, online, and anonymous survey. This survey contained the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale to assess depression and items to identify suicidal thoughts and behaviors, substance use, distressing emotional states, and the use of mental health treatment. Students who engaged in this ISP by corresponding electronically with a counselor after completing the survey were assessed and when indicated, referred to further treatment.

Results

The HEAR program was delivered to 1,008 medical students. Thirty-four percent (343/1,008) completed the online screening portion. Almost 8 % of respondents met the criteria for high/significant SR upon analysis of the completed screens. Ten out of 13 of the students with SR who dialogued with a counselor were not already receiving mental health treatment, indicating that this anonymous ISP identified a high proportion of an untreated, at risk, and potentially suicidal population. MHSU among medical students who completed the survey was 11.5 % in year 1 and 15.0 % by year 4. SR among medical students was 8.8 % in year 1 and 6.2 % in year 4 as assessed by the ISP.

Conclusions

This novel interventional program identified at risk, potentially suicidal medical students at one institution. Based on this single-site experience, we suggest that future multisite studies incorporate a comparison group, acquire baseline (prematriculation) data regarding MHSU and SR, and use an individualized yet anonymous identification system to measure changes in individual participants’ mental health status over time.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the AFSP for their support in implementing the Interactive Screening Program at UCSD. This work was supported by the National Institute on Mental Health R25 grant MH071544 and the John A Majda, MD Memorial Fund.

Disclosures

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Nancy Downs, Wendy Feng, Brittany Kirby, Tara McGuire, Christine Moutier, William Norcross, Marc Norman, Ilanit Young & Sid Zisook

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  1. Nancy Downs
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  2. Wendy Feng
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  3. Brittany Kirby
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  4. Tara McGuire
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  5. Christine Moutier
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  6. William Norcross
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  7. Marc Norman
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  8. Ilanit Young
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  9. Sid Zisook
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Correspondence to Nancy Downs.

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Downs, N., Feng, W., Kirby, B. et al. Listening to Depression and Suicide Risk in Medical Students: the Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) Program. Acad Psychiatry 38, 547–553 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0115-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0115-x

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