Doctoral pressure cooker: Study links PhD years to higher mental health risks

Tracking over 20,000 PhD students, a Swedish study shows a sharp rise in psychiatric medication during doctoral years, with stress peaking in the fifth year before easing post-graduation

PhD students are 40 per cent more likely to need psychiatric medication during their doctoral studies, reveals a new population-based Swedish study.

 

Published in the Journal of Health Economics, the research, titled The impact of PhD studies on mental health: A longitudinal population study, tracked over 20,000 PhD students and found a significant spike in psychiatric drug use over time. Usage peaked in the fifth year and then declined after graduation.

What the study uncovered about mental health decline

Once doctoral programmes began, PhD students showed a steady rise in psychiatric medication use each year. By the fifth year, nearly half were more likely to rely on psychiatric drugs like antidepressants, sedatives or anti-anxiety medications than before. By contrast, the control group of non-PhD peers showed no such increase.

 

The trend was seen across most disciplines, including social sciences, humanities, engineering and natural sciences. Students in medical and health sciences, however, showed a relatively smaller increase.

What drives mental health strain in doctoral life?

The study did not isolate one specific cause, but pointed to a mix of high workloads, limited career certainty, emotional stress, and academic isolation.

 

Even in Sweden, where PhD students are salaried employees with social benefits, the pressure of long hours, publish-or-perish expectations, and relocation stress weighed heavily.

 

Students who moved cities for their PhD, were younger, male or foreign-born were especially vulnerable.

Could rising medication reflect better awareness or access?

To rule out this possibility, researchers compared hospital admissions for mental and behavioural disorders, and found they also spiked after PhD enrolment. This confirms the rise in prescriptions was linked to actual mental health decline, not just more people seeking help.

Does mental health improve after the PhD ends?

The researchers found that psychiatric medication use drops significantly after graduation. But the emotional impact doesn’t vanish overnight — even years later, mental health levels remained higher than pre-PhD levels.

A structural problem, not just a personal one

The study underscores the systemic nature of mental health decline in academia. Institutions with better student-to-faculty ratios, greater gender diversity in faculty, and shorter programme durations showed lower increases in psychiatric medication.

 

Researchers argue that universities must tackle the cultural and systemic pressures of doctoral training, through mentoring, job security, and mental health support, to prevent burnout in future scholars. 

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