Barriers Faced by Medical Students in Seeking Mental Healthcare: A Scoping Review

Abstract Introduction Medical students commonly encounter psychological illness in both the classroom and in clinical settings, but unfortunately also face a variety of mental health issues themselves. Despite the availability of professional help on medical campuses, help-seeking continues to be a challenge for some students (Rotenstein et al., 2016). Our review aimed to identify the barriers medical students face when seeking professional mental healthcare. Question What are the barriers to seeking professional mental healthcare faced by medical students? Methods A MeSH search was created for articles using the databases PubMed, Embase, and PsychINFO to identify articles specifically about medical students and their barriers to professional mental healthcare. 454 articles were identified and screened by title/abstract and then full text. Data was extracted from 33 articles using an independent framework. Barriers identified were compiled and reported. Results From a total of 33 articles, the most commonly identified barriers to seeking mental healthcare were fear of negative effect on residency/career opportunities, fear of confidentiality breach, stigma and fear of shaming from peers, lack of perceived seriousness/normalization of symptoms, lack of time, and fear of documentation on academic record. Students also preferred to seek care outside of their institution from fear of provider being an academic preceptor. Discussion Many of the barriers to mental healthcare faced by medical students relate to a fear of academic/career reprisal and fear of confidentiality breach. It appears that despite recent efforts to decrease stigma surrounding mental illness, many medical students struggle to seek appropriate support. Access to mental health care can be improved by increasing transparency regarding what information will be displayed on academic records, dispelling common myths about mental healthcare and increasing awareness about available resources for medical students.