Screening for psychopathology symptoms in Mexican psychiatry residents.

BACKGROUND Various rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, and suicide among physician have been reported, generally higher than those in the general population. Psychiatry residents, as other specializing physicians, seem to be prone to suffering them. The prevalence of psychological symptoms among psychiatry residents has not been formally studied. METHOD The authors studied the presence, frequency, and severity of psychological symptoms among psychiatry residents from a public psychiatric hospital in Mexico City, Mexico. The SLC-90 was answered by 92 residents; data were analyzed by SAS software, and gender differences were established. Results were compared with data from a previous study realized in the general Mexican population. RESULTS Interpersonal sensitivity, depression, obsessive-compulsive, and somatic worries were seen more frequently or more severely than other categories. Female residents reported symptoms more frequently. CONCLUSION A significant portion of psychiatry residents reported psychological symptoms, although they described them as less frequent and less severe than found in the general Mexican population. In spite of this, interpersonal sensitivity was shown as the most severe symptomatic dimension in our sample, unlike findings in the general population.