The characteristics of depressive symptoms in medical students during medical education and training: a cross-sectional study
The medical course can contribute to the development of depressive symptoms that might lead to possible academic and professional consequences. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of depressive symptoms among 481 medical students (79.8% of total matriculated)
Methods: Using the Beck Depression Inventory [BDI] and cluster analyses in order to better describe the characteristics of depressive symptomatology.
Results: There were 184 (38.2%) students with depressive symptoms (BDI>9). The 6th grade obtained the highest BDI scores.
Affective cluster was significantly higher in the 6th grade in comparison to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th years (p<.05). Cognitive cluster was significantly higher in the 4th grade in comparison to both 2nd and 6th years (p<.05).
Somatic cluster was significantly higher in the 6th grade in comparison to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th years (p<.05). The exploratory analysis of possible risk factors showed that males (p=.020), not having a medical parent (p=,016), second year (p=,013), and internship years (5th and 6th [p=,028 and p=,001, respectively]) were factors for development of depressive symptoms.
Conclusions: There is a high prevalence towards depressive symptoms among medical students particularly female, in the 2nd, 5th, and 6th grades, mainly involving the somatic and affective cluster, and do not have a medical parent. The active assessment of these students in evaluating their depressive symptoms is important in order to prevent the development of comorbidity and suicide risk.
Author: Sergio Baldassin, Tania CTF Alves, Arthur G Andrade and Luiz A Nogueira-Martins
Credits/Source: BMC Medical Education 2008, 8:60
Published on: 2008-12-11
Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please
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