Depression and Mental Health in Practicing Orthopaedic Surgeons

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Physician suicide and burnout have emerged as major concerns in the medical community, and surgeons are at a particularly high risk with longer hours and heightened stress levels. Although significant literature has focused on physician burnout in general, much of existing research has focused on physicians-in-training. There is no published assessment of the risk factors for depression among orthopaedic surgeons, in particular accounting for unique characteristics of orthopaedic subspecialties. The purpose of this study is to stratify risk of depression and suicidal ideation among orthopaedic surgeons by subspecialty while evaluating overall prevalence and other demographic risk factors.

In this study, we will recruit practicing board-certified orthopaedic surgeons from various subspecialty organizations and administer a survey that includes demographic questions, the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory. The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale and Beck Depression Inventory are both well validated tools for evaluating suicidal ideation and depression. There will be no personal identifiers collected in the survey, and access to results will be secured. There are no costs or benefits for subjects completing the survey with the only foreseeable risk being potential psychological distress. After collecting responses to the survey for one month, the data will be pooled, and the incidence of depression or suicidal ideation will be evaluated in the context of demographic questions taking into account subspecialty. Logistic regression model will be applied with the outcome of presence/absence of depression and/or suicidal ideation. If applicable, severity of depression or suicidal ideation will be correlated.