Vom Studienstart bis zum ersten Staatsexamen – Zunahme von Depressivität bei gleichzeitigem Verlust des Kohärenzgefühls und der psychischen Lebensqualität in höheren Semestern Humanmedizin

Abstract

Psychiatric disorders (Burnout, depression, anxiety disorders) are common among medical students with a distinctly higher prevalence compared to the general public. Although medi-cal students show a normal health status at the beginning of their university study period, a deterioration of these aspects in higher semesters is evident and continues when they become residents. In our study ESTRELLAS we examined 530 medical students in the preclinical semesters (1st-4th) before their first "Staatsexamen" with validated psychological questionnaires for depression, anxiety, quality of life and sense of coherence. Students in their 1st semester show normal values like the general public. During the 4 semesters a slow and continuous rise of depressive symptoms and anxiety was detected. Quality of life and sense of coherence constantly deteriorated. An increase of physical symptoms was not detected. In the 4th semester the number of depressive students had already doubled. The development of worsening psychological problems and resulting psychiatric disorders seems to be a continuous process, starting with the beginning of the medical studies and growing continuously during the preclinical semesters. Effect-ive strategies for coping with distress should be integrated in the medical curriculum at universities from the very first semester on. Relaxation techniques could thus be an opportunity.

Relación entre el sentido de coherencia y el cansancio emocional en estudiantes universitarios. / Relationship between sense of coherence and emotional exhaustion in university students.

“…Se han encontrado diferencias en el sentido de coherencia entre estudiantes de primer y tercer curso en cuanto al sentido de coherencia, obteniendo puntuaciones más altas los alumnos del curso más elevado, este hallazgo estaría en consonancia con los sugerido por Antonovsky (1987) con respecto a que el sentido de coherencia aumenta con la edad hasta los 30 años, aunque existen estudios que aseguran que el sentido de coherencia se va deteriorando con el paso del tiempo en los alumnos universitarios (Burger, Tektas, Paulsen y Scholz, 2014).…”

Entwicklung und Zusammenhang von Arbeitsverhalten, Burnout-Beschwerden und Lebensqualität bei Studierenden der Humanmedizin vom Studienstart bis zum ersten Staatsexamen

“…ist hinsichtlich des Entstehens und des Verlaufs von psychischen Belastungen bei Medizinstudierenden ein Handlungsbedarf bereits von Studienbeginn an indiziert. Die hier beschriebenen psychischen Belastungen münden nachweislich in diesem Kollektiv in eine erhöhte Prävalenz von depressiven Störungen[12]. Unserer Ansicht nach sollte es möglich sein, durch gezieltes Training zur Verbesserung von Arbeits-und Erlebensmustern protektive Verhaltensweisen aufrechtzuerhalten bzw.…”

Resilience and sense of coherence in first year medical students - a cross-sectional study

“…Deducing from the parameters we chose, we also assume this development is probably caused by an insu cient adaptation to psychological stress and a lack of coping mechanisms. In an earlier study, we already found lower SOC values in female students (18,45), and our recent data indicates that the factor resilience follows an even more gender-imbalanced pattern. Although our survey was administered to a relatively small-sized sample group, we were able to nd a signi cant difference between the gender groups with regards to their resilience.…”

“…Many high-quality studies (5)(6)(7) have demonstrated that undergraduate physicians already show a very high frequency of risk factors for mental health problems (1,8,9) such as burnout, and some manifest mental disorders (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). This is particularly noteworthy, as the future physicians seem to begin their studies with increased levels of disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders compared to the general population (1,(17)(18)(19).…”