by Staff writer
A study of PhD students in Belgium just added to a body of research highlighting a harsh reality: PhD students are more likely to experience mental-health distress than other groups of people.
This includes non-students, employees and other higher-education students.
The study found that more than half of the respondents reported experiencing at least two mental-health problems in recent weeks, and 32% reported four or more symptoms.
Common complaints included feelings of constant strain, unhappiness, worry-induced sleep problems and an inability to enjoy everyday activities.
About two-thirds of the respondents were in the hard sciences and one-third the humanities or social sciences. There was no clear trend between area of study and risk of mental-health issues.
PhD students fared poorly relative to non-students, the study also found.
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Source: Nature.Com
