Longitudinal assessment of depression, stress, and burnout in medical students

• Published in: Journal of neurosciences in rural practice 2016-10, Vol.7 (4), p.493-498
• Main Authors: Goel, Akhil, Akarte, Sulbha, Agrawal, Sumita, Yadav, Vikas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Burn out (Psychology); Depression, Mental; Medical students; Original; Psychological aspects; Stress (Psychology)
• ISSN: 0976-3147; 0976-3155
• DOI: 10.4103/0976-3147.188625

Background: Medical students can and do suffer from mental disorders is a concept yet to get wide acceptance. There are few studies comprehensively evaluating depression, stress, and burnout in medical students, especially in a longitudinal way in India. The current study aims to assess the impact of medical education on the development of psychological morbidities and the role of personality. Materials and Methods: First-year medical students of a leading medical college of India were enrolled on admission and given anonymized, validated, self-administered questionnaires assessing depression, stress, burnout, and personality. This was repeated at the end of 1st year. Data were analyzed independently as questionnaires were anonymized. Results: We found that 1st year of medical college showed a significantly increasing depression (P < 0.01) and stress (P < 0.01). Overall burnout did not increase significantly. However, only disengagement dimension of burnout increased significantly. Personalities with weak capacity to adjust had a significant positive correlation with depression (r = 0.277, P< 0.001) and stress scores (r = 0.210, P= 0.008). However, burnout did not correlate with any of the personality dimensions. Conclusion: Right from the 1st year of medical education students perceive high-stress levels and have a high risk of depression. Burnout starts to creep in at least in the form of disengagement. This study provides a sound groundwork for planning interventions to reduce student's mental morbidity and avoid burnout.