By: Jennifer Casiano-Matos Edited by: Eileen Oni & Paulina Krzyszczyk Isolation, the nature of research, feelings of inadequacy, and lack of consistent achievements are several reasons why graduate students are at a greater risk for mental health issues than the general population. Several journals, including a March 2018 publication in Nature Biotechnology, titled Evidence of mental health crisis in graduate education, have warned of overall poor mental health among graduate students in the majority of academic settings. This article adds to the numerous testimonials, anecdotes and studies on this issue. For example, a 2014 study in UC Berkeley found that 43-46% of graduate students in biosciences were depressed. In addition, a 2015 report from Arizona University found that doctoral students reported “more than average” stress. It is alarming that graduate students have six times greater risk of experiencing depression and anxiety as compared to the general population. The 2018 study, published by Dr. Theresa M. Evans, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, surveyed graduate students from different areas of expertise such as humanities, social sciences, biological, physical, engineering and other fields. A total of 2,279 individuals were surveyed by email and social media platforms. The results were consistent with other similar studies that found that women and transgender or gender-nonconforming graduate students are more likely to experience anxiety and depression: a total of 43 and 55 percent respectively and compared with a 34 percent in men. As a result, one of the main open questions after the study was, why are women more susceptible to anxiety and depression and what we can the system do about it? This question is still being explored. Many of these studies also acknowledge that physical and mental well-being are influenced by work-life balance. The study found that 56 percent of the interviewed graduate students that were experiencing severe to moderate anxiety agreed that they lack a healthy work-life balance. In contrast, only 24 percent of those depressed agreed. Since work-life balance is essential to mental health, a cultural change may be needed to maintain balance. Another important aspect of the graduate school experience that the survey examined is the mentor/trainee relationship. These statistics were particularly alarming to me: the study found that half of the group did not agree that their advisor served as a valuable mentor or provided enough support. Graduate students that have high anxiety and depression feel that their advisors do not provide mentorship, support, positive emotional feedback, or guidance with career development. These statistics underscore that a successful mentor/mentee relationship can have great value. 
What should be done about the problem? The article suggested several strategies to minimize the problem of poor mental health among graduate students. The first strategy is increasing access to support them. Here at the NIH, we have the Office of Intramural Training and Education. This office provides training in aspects such as grant writing, communication, leadership, education and career/professional development. The idea is that service and activities from this office can be implemented in various academic institutions to help graduate students during their trainee development. Another vital aspect for graduate students is career development and exploration. At Rutgers, the iJOBS program can help graduate students and postdocs explore and pursue their career goals. This program is especially helpful to students whose advisors may not know how to individually guide them in their career development. On a similar note, graduate students should understand that having multiple mentors can be a good idea and a great advantage. Multiple mentors can provide different insights on research issues, career development and how to deal with work-life balance. PI’s and mentors play an essential role in the transition from a graduate student to a professional scientist. As Dr. Evans said, PI’s do not necessarily add the role of emotional counselor, but they should receive training in ways to detect that their trainees need professional help. One example of this is the train the trainers model, in which faculty and staff are trained on how to act as better support systems for trainees. The findings of the study should not be taken for granted and an imminent change in culture is needed. More effort is needed from academia and perhaps even policy makers, to ensure that future graduate students have a better experience and quality of life. Efforts such as support groups, career development programs, mental-health seminars, policies on work-life balance, and recognizing the value of having several mentors should be implemented. Another suggestion, perhaps on the individual PI-level, is acceptance of an 8-9-hour work shift for graduate students, instead of pressuring them to spend endless hours in the laboratory. We can start working inside the organization and academia while policy changes are being made and find ways to help trainees. Overall, we must acknowledge the problems that exist and determine how to successfully deal with them in order to promote individual well-being. iJOBS Bloggers are well-aware of the mental health crisis, and we have several articles that talk more in deep about this problem such as Stress and Burnout in Graduate School: Recognizing, Preventing, and Recovering, and Burn Out – #Takebreaksmakebreakthroughs. I invite you to read them, share them and apply the tips that they provide to your everyday life! This post is a summary of several posts and articles including: https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4089 https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/06/new-study-says-graduate-students-mental-health-crisis
iJOBS Blog