Abstract: Objective To examine pressure sources and status of mental health and to investigate the relationship between work stress and mental health among medical staff in the north area of Jiangsu province.Methods With stratified cluster sampling,totally 866 medical staff from tertiary hospitals in the north area of Jiangsu province were selected for a questionnaire survey.Results In the medical staff,the scores of all the factors of Symptom Checklist-90(SCL-90),except for interpersonal sensitivity,were higher than those of the national norm(P<0.001 for all).The external environment,work burden and the management of the organization,and physician-patient relationship were the top four stressors with the scores of 3.19±0.60,3.02±0.56,2.79±0.51,and 2.76±0.64,respectively.There were significant corelations between work pressure and each factor of SCL-90(r=0.001-0.251,P<0.05 or P<0.01).Binary logistic regression analysis showed that interpersonal pressure(odds ratioOR=1.755,95% confidence interval95%CI=1.261-2.442)was a risk factor for mental health.Conclusion The psychological health status of medicall staff in north area of Jiangsu province is worse than that of normal population and interpersonal pressure is one of significant factors affecting the mental health of the medical staff.