In a study of 401 cancer specialists in the UK, 102 exhibited possible psychiatric morbidity and more than one in ten showed clinically important levels of depression. The study was published by Professor Chris Todd and his team at the University's School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and Christie Hospital, Manchester in Clinical Medicine in June.

The team surveyed all palliative medicine, clinical oncology and medical oncology specialists in the country. 63% of the specialists responded to the study.

The main concerns for the respondents included being over-stretched, keeping up-to-date with knowledge, fear of making mistakes, talking to distressed relatives and long working hours. For the palliative care group, stress factors included making the right decision as a team and low prestige of specialty.

Todd adds, "Many doctors in various specialties experience high levels of stress during their working lives and are more at risk of depression, alcoholism and suicide than the general population. They also report that it can affect their performance. Cancer clinicians are exposed to high risk of poor mental health and other work has shown that their psychiatric morbidity has increased markedly over recent years."

As far as what can be done to alleviate this problem, Todd suggests tackling workload problems as well as changing the culture to allow these specialists to work through and talk about difficulties without a fear of affecting their career prospects.