Thread by @ZJAyres

When I experienced depression as a PhD student I started doing what I'd been trained to do. I started researching in my own time to try to understand. I've been asked for some key reads around grad #mentalhealth, so here's a 🧵 1/

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2/ Understanding Mental Health in the Research Environment - the RAND Europe study by Susan Guthrie et al.

A detailed review of the literature, discussing academic mental health including environmental factors and intervention efficacy. rand.org/pubs/research_…

3/ Graduate Student Happiness and Wellbeing report - UC Berkeley.

Found 47% of grad students experience anxiety and depression. As well finding African-American and Native American students are less likely to feel valued by their departments.

ga.berkeley.edu/wellbeingrepor…

4/ Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students - Levecque et al.

Found mental health problems are higher in PhD students than in the highly educated general population, highly educated employees and higher education students.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

5/ Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education - Evans et al, Nature Biotech.

Found that graduate students are more than six times as likely to experience depression and anxiety as compared to the general population.

nature.com/articles/nbt.4…

6/ Graduate survey: A love–hurt relationship - Nature PhD survey.

"Only 35% said that they found helpful resources at their own institution. Nearly 20% said they tried to find help at their home institution but didn't feel supported.“

nature.com/articles/nj767…

7/ Addressing the mental health crisis among doctoral researchers by N².

Discusses how to address the crisis, including better financial support, mentoring and career options.

elephantinthelab.org/mental-health-…

8/ PhD mental health: moving from awareness to action - by me.

My take on some tangible steps universities can do to help graduate students, including increasing diversity, giving PIs mentoring training and refunding quickly.

the-gist.org/2019/11/phd-me…

9/ Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) summarised here.

"PGRs reveal striking levels of anxiety, with only 14% reporting that they have low anxiety. This compares with 41% of the general population"

advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views…

What is clear - PhD #mentalhealth is a serious concern. Research on the crisis is emerging, but we need actionable steps to address it. If you are struggling right now, you can be sure you aren't alone.

Got any more reading materials to add to the list? Post below!

#phdchat