COMMONNESS OF DEPRESSION AMONG STUDENTS DURING MBBS STUDIES

Background: Performance of a person is greatly affected by depression and anxiety. Particularly medical students get stressed out due to both of these during their study. Objectives: To analyze the commonness of depression in students studying at MBBS level during different stages. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted randomly and expressively at Quaid e Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur. A group of 200 students (half males and half females) were selected randomly ranging from 18 to 24 years of age. To analyze the students, depression and anxiety scale was used. Students with score greater or equal to 20 were declared depressed. Special questionnaires were designed to obtain details. SPSS software version 16.0 was used to calculate the obtained details. Results: It was found that from 200 subjects, 53(26.50%) were students with depression and 147(73.50%) were not. Percentage of depression among students decreased from 1st to 2nd to 3rd year of study from 29.27% to 25.64% to 15.15% respectively. In 4th year it increased to 25.53% which then increased up to 35% in last year of MBBS. Conclusion: Depression is very much common in medical students. Increase in stress during 1st 3 years can be due to emotional discomfort. It increased afterwards due to more study and responsibilities. With their academic burden expanded, most stress among students is found in last year of study when they think of their future just a few more steps away