Depressed Medical Residents Linked To Medication Errors

Washington (dbTechno) - A new study has shown that depression in young medical residents, doctors, can cause a great many medication and other medical errors, putting the safety of patients at these hospitals in doubt.

The study was done on 123 pediatric residents and found that medical residents who are depressed were six times more likely to make medical errors compared directly to those who were not depressed.

Researchers found that out of the residents, 20% were depressed, and 74% were simply tired and burnt out.

They made 45 medication errors during the study period.

The study concluded that those depressed young doctors were 6.2 times more likely to make a medication error.

The results have been published in the online edition of the British Medical Journal on February 7.

The authors of the study stated that this will likely open the eyes of many as it was always believed that burnt out doctors made more mistakes. It seems that those who are depressed make quite a few more.

98,000 patients in the U.S. die of medication errors, and this could be a contributing factor to it.