CHSJ

Curr Health Sci J, vol. 37, no. 1, 2011

Contributions to the Study of Depressive Phenomenon in Medical Students

[Original Paper]

A.A. CUPSA(1), T. UDRISTOIU(1), L. MARINESCU(2), I. ANDRONIC(1), F. NECHITA(1)


(1)Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Craiova;
(2)Universitary Hospital „V. Babes” in Craiova 


Abstract:

Although the educational environment is unanimous recognized worldwide as having a high vulnerability to mental disorders, there is a lack of studies on a large scale concerning this matter in our professional literature. The investigation intended to prove the existence and epidemiological-clinical characterization of the depressive phenomenon in a local medicine faculty, with reference to a group of young people of similar age from non medical branches. The prospective study, compared and randomized, initiated in the Faculty of Medicine in Craiova (target group, 655 subjects), in 2008, had as control group young people of similar age belonging to the local academic and non-academic environment (310 subjects). The Zung Depression Scale (SDZ) has been used both anonymous and voluntary. At the Faculty of Medicine, the prevalence of students with scores higher than SDZ scale cutoff (i.e. ? 50) was 28,2 ± 5,5%, and the level of the control group was 18,2 ± 2,8% (chi2= 8,88, p=0,002). Female medicine students were more significantly affected than the control group (153/512 vs. 52/231 - chi2 4.33 p = 0,037). The prevalence of responders with scores SDZ ? 50 for the Medicine group showed in both genres maximum values at the extremes of educational cycle (30,7% in the 1st and 2nd years, and 31,4% in the finishing years) and a minimum in the transition period (22,2%).For the Faculty of Medicine, compared with control groups, there has been a prevalence of the scores compatible with the mild forms of depression. There have been highlighted both individual and socio professional group particularities in circulating and aggregating the depressive symptoms in variable size clusters, from those with non clinical significance to those compatible with clinical and sub-clinical depression


Keywords: depression, medicine students, Zung depression scale, epidemiology



Corresponding: A.A. Cupsa, MD, PhD student, Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Craiova, Str Petru Rares nr. 4, 200456, Craiova, Dolj, RomAnia; e-mail: cupsa2000@yahoo.com


DOI 10.12865/CHSJ.37.01.02 - Download PDF
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