What to do about growing stress in the veterinary professionNovember 30, 2017 Stress is an all-pervasive phenomenon in modern day societies and various professions, but the veterinary discipline suffers from the negative effects of stress and its sequelae at a troublingly disproportionate rate. A recent report, written by Richard W. Kim and his colleagues at the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, Center for Animal and Human Health at Lincoln Memorial University, and School of Public Health at Jackson State University, published in the November 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, discusses the issue of negative stress in veterinarians and veterinary students and suggests a novel approach in combating this scourge. Pervasive problem with elusive effective change Negative stress, often called distress, is at the root of many mental health problems and dysfunctional behaviors. Surveys by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other researchers have found that veterinarians suffer two to three times the prevalence of serious mental illness and feelings of despair relative to the general population. According to a 2015 survey published by Nett et al in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, it has been reported that almost a third of veterinarians had experienced depression, with as high as …
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