ArticleMedical education online2026
Disability, mental health symptom recognition, and treatment-seeking in resident physicians with depressive symptoms.
Article in Medical education online, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionResident physicians are at high-risk for depressive symptoms, yet most of those meeting depression criteria do not seek care. Resident physicians with disabilities are at higher risk for depressive symptoms. However, their mental health treatment-seeking behaviours remain poorly understood. This study investigates associations between self-identified disability-status, mental health symptom recognition, and treatment-seeking among first-year residents with depressive symptoms.
methodsWe analysed data from the 2020-2022 cohorts of the Intern Health Study, a longitudinal study of first-year resident physicians. Depressive symptoms were assessed quarterly with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9); scores ≥10 indicated a positive depression screen. Residents who screened positive at least once during internship and identified their disability-status were included. Mental health symptom recognition and treatment-seeking were assessed via quarterly surveys throughout the first residency year. Associations between disability-status, symptom recognition, and treatment-seeking were examined using weighted logistic regression adjusting for sex and specialty-type. Post-stratification and attrition weights addressed nonrepresentative sampling and loss to follow-up. Sensitivity analyses excluded interns reporting psychological disabilities.
resultsOf 5,062 interns, 1,386 (27.4%) screened positive for depression during internship; 940 identified their disability-status and were included (127 [13.5%] with disabilities). Compared to nondisabled interns, those with disabilities were significantly more likely to recognise mental health symptoms (adjusted weighted-OR = 4.5, 95% CI: 1.8-14.7) and seek treatment (adjusted weighted-OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 2.1-5.0). Results remained significant in sensitivity analyses excluding psychological disabilities.
conclusionAmong depressed first-year residents, self-identified disability-status was associated with significantly greater symptom recognition and treatment-seeking. These findings suggest disability-related experiences may be associated with reduced normalisation of depressive symptoms in residency, offering insights for reducing stigma and treatment barriers in medical training.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.