Cited by 411Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutInnovations in Medical EducationMental Health Treatment and Access

A prospective cohort study investigating factors associated with depression during medical internship

Open access
Sen, Srijan, Kranzler, Henry R., Krystal, John H., Speller, Heather, Chan, Grace, Gelernter, Joel, Guille, Constance·2010·Archives of General Psychiatry

Abstract

CONTEXT: Although the prevalence of depression among medical interns substantially exceeds that of the general population, the specific factors responsible are not well understood. Recent reports of a moderating effect of a genetic polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) in the serotonin transporter protein gene on the likelihood that life stress will precipitate depression may help to understand the development of mood symptoms in medical interns. OBJECTIVES: To identify psychological, demographic, and residency program factors that are associated with depression among interns and to use medical internship as a model to study the moderating effects of this polymorphism. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. SETTING: Thirteen US hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Seven hundred forty interns entering participating residency programs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Subjects were assessed for depressive symptoms using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a series of psychological traits, and the 5-HTTLPR genotype prior to internship and then assessed for depressive symptoms and potential stressors at 3-month intervals during internship. RESULTS: The PHQ-9 depression score increased from 2.4 prior to internship to a mean of 6.4 during internship (P < .001). The proportion of participants who met PHQ-9 criteria for depression increased from 3.9% prior to internship to a mean of 25.7% during internship (P < .001). A series of factors measured prior to internship (female sex, US medical education, difficult early family environment, history of major depression, lower baseline depressive symptom score, and higher neuroticism) and during internship (increased work hours, perceived medical errors, and stressful life events) was associated with a greater increase in depressive symptoms during internship. In addition, subjects with at least 1 copy of a less-transcribed 5-HTTLPR allele reported a greater increase in depressive symptoms under the stress of internship (P = .002). CONCLUSIONS: There is a marked increase in depressive symptoms during medical internship. Specific individual, internship, and genetic factors are associated with the increase in depressive symptoms.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.41

Cites

78 of 78 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The chronic stressor of medical internship triggers new onset depression in a substantial number of those exposed.

    “These longitudinal data, collected in the context of a chronic stressor that triggers new onset depression in a substantial number of those exposed (Mata et al., 2015; Sen et al., 2010), add weight to the idea that hypercortisolemia is neither a cause nor direct correlate of depressive symptom states, at least in the context of a non-clinical sample.”
  • Medical internship is an established model of stress and depression.

    “an established model of stress and depression (Sen et al., 2010).”
  • The longitudinal data add weight to the idea that hypercortisolemia is neither a cause nor direct correlate of depressive symptom states, at least in a non-clinical sample.

    “These longitudinal data, collected in the context of a chronic stressor that triggers new onset depression in a substantial number of those exposed (Mata et al., 2015; Sen et al., 2010), add weight to the idea that hypercortisolemia is neither a cause nor direct correlate of depressive symptom states, at least in the context of a non-clinical sample.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 79 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sen, S., Kranzler, H. R., Krystal, J. H., Speller, H., Chan, G., Gelernter, J., & Guille, C.
Affiliations
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • University of Connecticut (US)
  • Yale University (US)
  • Medical University of South Carolina (US)
Venue
Archives of General Psychiatry
Published
2010-06-01
Volume
67
Issue
6
Pages
557
ISSN
0003-990X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2063172343
Cited by
411
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 17 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 15
FWCI
23.23
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Archives of General Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH095109)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
Keywords
depression, medical interns, residency training, 5-HTTLPR, serotonin transporter gene, genetic polymorphism, life events, depressive symptoms, neuroticism, working hours, female sex, family environment
MeSH terms
Adult, Depression, Major Depressive Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Female, Genotype, Health Status, Humans, Internship and Residency, Life Change Events, Male, Medicine, Prospective Studies, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Stress, Psychological, Students, Medical, Cohort Studies, Prevalence, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review