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. 2025 Mar 11;8(3):e70561.
doi: 10.1002/hsr2.70561. eCollection 2025 Mar.

Association of Anxiety and Depression With Suicidal Thoughts and Suicidal Ideation Amongst Dental Personnel-A Cross-Sectional Study

Abhishek Lal  1 , Shaharyar Usman  1 , Dinaz Ghandhi  2 , Shweta Gohil  3 , Sara Saeed  4 , Sara Altamash  5 , Naseer Ahmed  5 , Artak Heboyan  6   7   8 , Gotam Das  9
Affiliations

Association of Anxiety and Depression With Suicidal Thoughts and Suicidal Ideation Amongst Dental Personnel-A Cross-Sectional Study

Abhishek Lal et al. Health Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Background and aims: Psychological disorders like anxiety and depression are prevalent among dental professionals, being responsible for negatively affecting their mental health. Such factors are detrimental and may lead to suicidal thoughts and ideation. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of anxiety and depression on suicidal thoughts and ideation among dental professionals in Pakistan.

Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study formulated a self-reporting online questionnaire of dental professionals of Karachi, Pakistan between September and December 2023. The online questionnaire consisted of demographics and validated tools to measure anxiety using GAD-7, depression using PHQ-9, and Suicide thoughts and ideation using SIDAS.

Results: A total of 636 dental professionals were recruited in the study. Overall, 76.1% of the participants reported moderate to severe anxiety, 64.1% experienced moderate to severe depression, and 11.9% of participants reported high levels of suicidal thoughts and ideation. Anxiety and depression had a statistically significant association with suicide among dental professionals (p-value < 0.001).

Conclusion: This study highlights the positive association of anxiety and depression with suicidal ideation and thoughts among dental professionals. Hence, it is important to monitor the mental health of dental professionals and provide essential health and support to overcome such psychological distress.

Keywords: anxiety; dental professionals; depression; suicide.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and the corresponding author, had full access to all of the data in this study and takes complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. The ethical approval was granted by the Ethics Review Committee of the Altamash Institute of Dental Medicine, Pakistan (AIDM/ERC/08/2023/02).The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PHQ‐9 scale.
Figure 2
Figure 2
GAD‐7 scale.
Figure 3
Figure 3
SIDAS scale.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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