Evaluation of factors affecting psychological morbidity in emergency medicine practitioners.

BACKGROUND Assessing and evaluating mental health status can provide educational planners valuable information to predict the quality of physicians' performance at work. These data can help physicians to practice in the most desired way. The study aimed to evaluate factors affecting psychological morbidity in Iranian emergency medicine practitioners at educational hospitals of Tehran. METHODS In this cross sectional study 204 participants (emergency medicine residents and specialists) from educational hospitals of Tehran were recruited and their psychological morbidity was assessed by using a 28-question Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Somatization, anxiety and sleep disorders, social dysfunction and depression were evaluated among practitioners and compared to demographic and job related variables. RESULTS Two hundreds and four participants consisting of 146 (71.6%) males and 58 (28.4%) females were evaluated. Of all participants, 55 (27%) were single and 149 (73%) were married. Most of our participants (40.2%) were between 30-35 years old. By using GHQ-28, 129 (63.2%) were recognized as normal and 75 (36.8%) suffered some mental health disorders. There was a significant gender difference between normal practitioners and practitioners with disorder (P=0.02) while marital status had no significant difference (P=0.2). Only 19 (9.3%) declared having some major mental health issue in the previous month. CONCLUSION Females encountered more mental health disorders than male (P=0.02) and the most common disorder observed was somatization (P=0.006).