'Nature' Explores Why So Many Postgrads Have Bad Mental Health (nature.com)

An anonymous reader writes: This week Nature tweeted that the rates of depression and anxiety reported by postgraduate students were six times higher than in the general population -- and received more than 1,200 retweets and received 170 replies. "This is not a one dimensional problem. Financial burden, hostile academia, red tape, tough job market, no proper career guidance. Take your pick," read one response. "Maybe being told day in, day out that the work you spend 10+ hrs a day, 6-7 days a week on isn't good enough," said another.

The science magazine takes this as more proof that "there is a problem among young scientists. Too many have mental-health difficulties, and too many say that the demands of the role are partly to blame. Neither issue gets the attention it deserves." They're now gathering stories from postgraduates about mental-health issues, and vowing to give the issue more coverage. "There is a problem with the culture in science, and it is one that loads an increasing burden on the shoulders of younger generations. The evidence suggests that they are feeling the effects. (Among the tweets, one proposed solution to improving the PhD is to 'treat it like professional training instead of indentured servitude with no hope of a career at the end?'.)"

Comments

Re: Why indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

The physics field I went into had stipends for grad school, so no one I know came out with debt. And except for a hand full that stayed in academia, they all came out of school straight into six figure jobs. Yet and informal survey of a couple dozen people in similar situation shows sky high depression rates, and some are probably still hiding that they have depression. Financial burden certainly can make thigs worse, but there are problems people have even if given bucket loads of money. Can't just be pinned on the academia rat race either, as some fields have high industry hiring rates.

Re:Looking back, it's just like everything else in

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps now you can take the time to learn how to write English correctly.

Your writing is unbelievably poor.

It beggars belief that you have a degree in ANYTHING.

Wrong

[rsilvergun]

it's not over supply, any more than there's an over supply of musicians. Actual scientists just plain love doing science. That makes it easy for people to take advantage of them. Same as musicians get taken advantage of. And sports players. And video game programmers. And pretty much anyone who obsessively loves doing a job. There's always a few breakout successes (often times because a spouse or family member is handling the business side of things and keeping them from getting screwed) but for the most part we shit all over the rest.

This is one of the reasons minimum wage laws exist and need strict enforcement. It's also one of the reasons academia is heavily subsidized. These people will do really, really useful work if you let them. Or they'll get ground into dust if you let the suits have their way.