Resident Physicians Had Lower Mental Health Visit Rates Than Matched Non-Physicians in Retrospective Cohort Study

Resident physicians recorded lower rates of mental health care use than individually matched non-physicians during a five-year residency period, according to a retrospective, population-based cohort study summarized in a 2026 Journal of General Internal Medicine abstract. Overall, 34.35% of physicians had a mental health visit, compared with 36.13% of non-physicians. The analysis included 10,925 resident physicians and 54,625 matched non-physicians.

Researchers matched each physician to five non-physicians on index year, sex, age, rurality and income quintile. The study used records spanning April 1, 2004, through March 31, 2018. The mean age of participants was 27.2 years, with a standard deviation of 3.0 years. Among the physicians, 5,941, or 54.37%, were female and 4,984, or 45.62%, were male. A mental health visit was defined as any encounter carrying a diagnostic or billing code for a mental health condition.

Anxiety was the most common diagnosis across all study groups. It accounted for 67.38% of visits among female physicians, the group with the highest reported share. Within the physician cohort, female physicians had a higher rate of mental health visits than male physicians, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.44 (95% confidence interval, 1.35–1.54). The sex difference was also evident when physicians were compared with their matched counterparts: 39.71% of female physicians had a mental health visit, compared with 41.24% of female non-physicians, yielding an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.89 (95% CI, 0.85–0.93). For men, 27.97% of physicians had a visit, compared with 30.03% of non-physicians, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.76–0.85).

These results describe recorded mental health visits during residency, not the underlying prevalence of mental health conditions, and the observational comparison does not establish why visit rates differed. The report here is based on the supplied abstract rather than the full article; it does not include the complete methods or detailed assessment of potential limitations. The abstract also does not identify the geographic setting or provide information about barriers to care, informal support or factors affecting help-seeking. The authors concluded that approximately one in three physicians had a mental health visit during residency and that observed visit rates were lower than those of matched non-physicians despite persistent concerns about physician mental health. Female physicians were more likely than male physicians to have a mental health visit, a pattern the abstract describes as mirroring the general population.

Subject of Research: Sex-stratified comparison of mental health care use by resident physicians and matched non-physicians

Article Title: Mental Health Care Use Among Resident Physicians Compared with the General Population

Article References: Syed, S., Myran, D. T., Solmi, M., Kobewka, D., Yoo, S., Gibb, M., Spilg, E., Kendall, C. E., Fleming, N., Maniate, J. M., Tucker, J., Hundemer, G. L., Colman, I., Tanuseputro, P., & Sood, M. M. (2026). Mental Health Care Use Among Resident Physicians Compared with the General Population. Journal of General Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-026-10843-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11606-026-10843-3

Keywords: resident physicians, mental health care, retrospective cohort, matched comparison, sex differences, anxiety, health care use, hazard ratios, Mental, Health, Care, Resident