Neurophobia — a reluctance or fear of neurology among medical trainees — is recognized as a barrier to engagement with neurology and to students choosing neurology as a specialty. The authors sought to evaluate how neurophobia relates to demographic characteristics and student mental health in a large medical student cohort. The objective was to identify correlates among demographic variables and validated measures of stress, anxiety, depression and burnout, to inform possible targets for intervention.
Data were obtained from the ETMED-L project, an observational cohort study that investigates empathy, mental health and academic performance in medical students. The analytic sample included 1,066 students.
Neurophobia was assessed using the NeuroQ scale; the study applied a predefined threshold of NeuroQ ≥16/25 to identify students meeting the neurophobia threshold. Stress, anxiety, depression and burnout were measured with validated instruments (specific instrument names and cut points beyond the NeuroQ threshold are not detailed in the abstract).
The investigators used univariable and multivariable linear regression models to identify correlates of neurophobia. Multivariable models were adjusted for age and gender. The analysis reported both univariable associations and the variables that remained significant when entered together in adjusted models.
Out of 1,066 participating students, 264 (24.8%) met the neurophobia threshold (NeuroQ ≥16/25). Neurophobia was more prevalent among female students in the analyses reported.
In univariable analyses, students with neurophobia exhibited higher scores for anxiety, depression and burnout. However, when variables were entered into multivariable models adjusted for age and gender, only specific dimensions of burnout and gender remained significant.
The two burnout dimensions identified as significant correlates in the multivariable analysis were low academic efficacy and high emotional exhaustion. Generalized anxiety and depressive symptom measures were associated with neurophobia on univariable testing but did not remain independent correlates in the adjusted models reported in the abstract.
The analysis noted that students who were considering neurology as a specialty did not display higher burnout rates than their counterparts. The abstract does not report additional subgroup statistics (for example, the proportion of students considering neurology or their NeuroQ scores) beyond this comparison.
Within this large, cross-sectional student sample, neurophobia co-occurred with measures of poorer mental health in univariable analyses, but multivariable modeling pointed to specific burnout dimensions — low academic efficacy and emotional exhaustion — as more proximal correlates than anxiety or depression. The persistence of a gender effect was also reported.
These results suggest two practical implications for medical educators and departments of neurology:
Interventions that target student well-being and reduce emotional exhaustion (for example, workload management, resilience and recovery strategies) may help reduce neurophobia.
Measures that strengthen students’ sense of academic efficacy in neurology (for example, skill-building, early successful clinical experiences, structured feedback) may be valuable to improve engagement with neurology and to mitigate fear or avoidance.
Taken together, the findings imply that addressing burnout-related domains and fostering academic competence are plausible targets for efforts to decrease neurophobia and potentially increase interest in neurology as a career.
The source is an abstract of an observational cohort analysis. Specific methodological details not reported in the abstract include the response rate, sampling procedures, timing of assessments, the exact validated instruments used for stress/anxiety/depression/burnout by name, full multivariable model covariates besides age and gender, and effect size estimates or confidence intervals for reported associations. These details would be required to fully appraise potential bias, generalizability and the magnitude of associations.
In a cohort of 1,066 medical students, 24.8% met the NeuroQ cutoff for neurophobia. Female gender, low academic efficacy and high emotional exhaustion were the factors that remained associated with neurophobia after adjustment. The study highlights burnout dimensions as potentially actionable correlates and suggests student well-being and competence-building as considerations for interventions to reduce neurophobia and enhance engagement with neurology.