@book{44a0b2415c724bcf862d47cbef543a27,
title = "PhD Studies Hurt Mental Health, But Less than Previously Feared",
abstract = "We study the mental health of PhD students in Sweden using comprehensive administrative data on prescriptions, specialist care visits, hospitalizations, and causes of death. We find about 7% (5%) of PhD students receive medication or diagnosis for depression (anxiety) in a given year. These prevalence rates are less than one-third of the earlier reported survey-based estimates, and even after adjusting for difference in methodology, 43% (72%) of the rates in the literature. Nevertheless, PhD students still fare worse than their peers not pursuing graduate studies. Our difference-in-differences research design can attribute at least 80% of this health disadvantage to the time in the PhD program. This deterioration suggests doctoral studies causally affect mental health.",
keywords = "511 Economics, doctoral studies, mental health, depression, anxiety, suicide",
author = "Matti Keloharju and Samuli Kn{\"u}pfer and Dagmar M{\"u}ller and Joacim T{\aa}g",
year = "2022",
doi = "10.2139/ssrn.4190289",
language = "English",
series = "IFN Working Paper",
publisher = "IFN - Research Institute of Industrial Economics",
number = "1435",
address = "Sweden",
}
