Association of personality traits with anxiety and depression among clinical and nonclinical dental students

Background: There are studies about anxiety and depression among medical students well narrated in literature. However, limited studies have been reported among dental students. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the association between anxiety and depression with personality traits, type of education exposure, and their effect on coping strategies among dental students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was carried out among undergraduate dental students. Questions were related to the consumption of alcohol, smoking, chewing gums, and chocolates. Validated questionnaires such as the Hospital and Anxiety Scale and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-A Scale were used for evaluating anxiety and depression and personality traits, respectively. The statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 20.0). Chi-square test, Student's t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used for analysis, and the level of significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The results showed that males in nonclinical years (3.81 ± 1.18) and females in clinical years (4 ± 0.85) were more extrovert than their counterparts, whereas males and females in clinical years were more psychotic than males (3.26 ± 0.45) and females (3.03 ± 0.84) in nonclinical years. It was found that females in clinical years were more anxious and depressed than their counterparts. When extraversion was correlated with anxiety and depression, a negative correlation (-0.05,-0.63) was seen which was statistically significant for depression (P = 0.01), whereas a positive correlation was seen when psychoticism was correlated with anxiety (0.16, P = 0.61) and depression (0.5, P = 0.02). Among the total participants, a majority consumed chocolates as a coping strategy. Conclusion: It was observed that many dental students who were in their clinical years had more anxiety and depression as compared to their nonclinical peers which could be due to their personality traits. Interventions should be targeted to deal with these problems