First- and last-year medical students: is there a difference in the prevalence and intensity of anxiety and depressive symptoms?

Abstract

Objective: Medical training is considered a significant stress factor. We sought to assess the prevalence and intensity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in medical students and compare samples of first-year and sixth-year students.Method: This was a cross-sectional study of first-and sixth-year medical students who attended classes regularly. The study instruments were a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: A total of 232 students (110 first-year, 122 sixth-year) completed the questionnaires, for a response rate of 67.4%. Overall 50.4% of respondents were male (56.4% of first-year and 45.1% of sixth-year students). Anxiety symptoms were reported by 30.8% of first-year students and 9.4% of sixth-year students (p , 0.001). Female students were more affected by anxiety. There were no significant between-group differences in depressive symptoms. Conclusion: A higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms was found in first-year medical students as compared with sixth-year students. Strategies should be developed to help medical students, particularly female students, manage these symptoms at the beginning of their medical training.

Stress and coping in a sample of medical students in Brazil

“…To this end, there has to be a good adequacy of the student to the university environment and acceptance of aspects as proposed by the course curriculum that will contribute to greater satisfaction and would possibly favor the reduction of stress factors. The report of greater satisfaction with the course being significantly higher in first year students raises the hypothesis that, in spite of anxiety being higher at the beginning of the course 33 , it is likely that the new condition of "freshman" and the interest in learning, favor satisfaction. In fact, after enrolment will be the quality of teaching and learning that contribute most to the student (in) satisfaction 34,35 .…”

Mental health problems among medical students in Brazil: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…We included 59 studies in the qualitative analysis, and 57 [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] studies involving a total of 18,015 medical students in the quantitative analysis (Table 1). All forest plots are available on request from the authors.…”

Salud mental y calidad de sueño en estudiantes de ocho facultades de medicina humana del Perú

“…Esta relación suele enfatizarse en universitarios adolescentes, cuyo eje Hipotálamo-Hipofisario-Adrenal (HHA) aún no termina de madurar provocando incremento de secreción adrenal y aumento en el tiempo de latencia del sueño 36 . Entre los casos de los malos dormidores y la relación que esta guarda con la ansiedad se encontró una mayor proporción en los alumnos del segundo año, en contraste con estudios realizados por Bassols A. y colaboradores 37 en Brasil, en donde se observó una mayor prevalencia de síntomas de ansiedad en los estudiantes de primer año, en comparación con los estudiantes del último año, de la misma forma es respaldada por investigaciones similares 32 . Esto podría deberse a que los niveles de ansiedad para los estudiantes de medicina llegan a ser dolorosos, paralizantes hasta bloquear el pensamiento y la conducta 38 por lo que, la incertidumbre sobre el futuro, la necesidad de aprender, las interacciones del día a día con nuevos colegas y la presión de las evaluaciones nos estarían indicando como los factores más ansiogénicos dentro de los estudiantes de medicina.…”