I was married by the time I started graduate school. I suspect that being in a committed relationship, and in particular with someone who was also a grad student, kept me centered during the stressful times.

Perhaps these were different times, but a recent study shows that today’s PhD students are struggling with mental health issues:

“The researchers compared the rate at which PhD students, people with master’s degrees and a sample of the general population accessed mental-health services. Before starting a PhD, students and people with master’s degrees used these services at similar rates. But use of psychiatric medicines, such as antidepressants and sedatives, increased among PhD students year-on-year during their studies. This peaked in the fourth and fifth years — the average length of a PhD programme in most countries — then fell in the sixth and seventh years.

“Those at highest risk of being prescribed psychiatric medication during PhD studies were women and people who’d taken such medicines before starting their programme.

The authors found a similar pattern when they compared PhD students with a sample of the general population aged 18–70. Before beginning their programmes, PhD candidates used mental-health services less frequently than the general population, but by the end of their studies, the rates were the same.”

Leonard Cassuto described the anachronistic practice of training humanities PhDs for nonexistent academic jobs as “minting expired passports.” But even in the STEM fields today, a shrinking minority of PhDs get tenure track academic positions. Is there a difference in the mental health of humanities vs STEM PhD students?

“The study found that uptake in medication varied across academic fields. Those in natural sciences saw a 100% increase by the fifth year compared with pre-PhD levels, whereas those in the humanities and social sciences saw 40% and 50% increases, respectively. Medical students didn’t see any uptick in prescriptions.”

Life is hard. Grad school is stressful. Regardless of your path, if you need help, get it.

Stress and the PhD