Why Mental Health Literacy Can Improve STEM

Abstract In recent years, an increasing number of articles have outlined the mental health crisis in academia. Despite its widely appreciated significance, most of the related research is published in journals focusing on education, social science, psychology, or psychiatry. Despite stakeholders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) being disproportionately affected, they are often left in the dark about important findings unless they seek out relevant information themselves. This contribution attempts to spark interdisciplinary discussion between psychology, psychiatry, and STEM by highlighting relevant research, advocating for increased knowledge on mental health, and elaborating on what benefits improved mental health literacy could have for both the individual and the academic system in its entirety.