Year 1 students indicated experiencing the highest degree of pressure from studies. A gender difference regarding stress levels was also seen, where women reported higher levels of stress than men. Medical students had higher depression rates than the general population, and women students had higher rates than men.

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Objective To study the association between method of attempted suicide and risk of subsequent successful suicide. Design Cohort study with follow-up for 21-31 years. Setting Swedish national register linkage study. Participants 48 649 individuals admitted to hospital in 1973-82 after attempted suicide. Main outcome measure Completed suicide, 1973Completed suicide, -2003. Multiple Cox regression modelling was conducted for each method at the index (first) attempt, with poisoning as the reference category. Relative risks were expressed as hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Results 5740 individuals (12%) committed suicide during follow-up. The risk of successful suicide varied substantially according to the method used at the index attempt. Individuals who had attempted suicide by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation had the worst prognosis. In this group, 258 (54%) men and 125 (57%) women later successfully committed suicide (hazard ratio 6.2, 95% confidence interval 5.5 to 6.9, after adjustment for age, sex, education, immigrant status, and cooccurring psychiatric morbidity), and 333 (87%) did so with a year after the index attempt. For other methods (gassing, jumping from a height, using a firearm or explosive, or drowning), risks were significantly lower than for hanging but still raised at 1.8 to 4.0. Cutting, other methods, and late effect of suicide attempt or other self inflicted harm conferred risks at levels similar to that for the reference category of poisoning (used by 84%). Most of those who successfully committed suicide used the same method as they did at the index attempt-for example, >90% for hanging in men and women. Conclusion The method used at an unsuccessful suicide attempt predicts later completed suicide, after adjustment for sociodemographic confounding and psychiatric disorder. Intensified aftercare is warranted after suicide attempts involving hanging, drowning, firearms or explosives, jumping from a height, or gassing. INTRODUCTIONSuicide is a leading cause of death, and improving assessment and treatment of those at risk is paramount in clinical medicine in general and clinical psychiatry in particular.1 The risk of suicide after an unsuccessful attempt is around 10% over follow-up of 5-35 years.

Background: Mental distress among medical students is often reported. Burnout has not been studied frequently and studies using interviewer-rated diagnoses as outcomes are rarely employed. The objective of this prospective study of medical students was to examine clinically significant psychiatric morbidity and burnout at 3 rd year of medical school, considering personality and study conditions measured at 1 st year.

Objectives To study the association between physical illness and suicide in elderly people. Design Case-control with illness determined from interviews with relatives of people who committed suicide and with control participants and from medical records. Setting Gothenburg and two surrounding counties (210 703 people aged 65 years and over). Participants Consecutive records of people who had committed suicide and had undergone forensic examination (46 men, 39 women) and living control participants from the tax register (84 men, 69 women). Main outcome measures Physical illness rated in 13 organ systems according to the cumulative illness rating scale-geriatrics; serious physical illness (organ category score 3 or 4); overall score for burden of physical illness. Results Visual impairment (odds ratio 7.0, 95% confidence interval 2.3 to 21.4), neurological disorders (3.8, 1.5 to 9.4), and malignant disease (3.4, 1.2 to 9.8) were associated with increased risk for suicide. Serious physical illness in any organ category was an independent risk factor for suicide in the multivariate regression model (6.4, 2.0 to 20.0). When the sexes were analysed separately, serious physical illness was associated with suicide in men (4.2, 1.8 to 9.5) as was high burden of physical illness (2.8, 1.2 to 6.5). Such associations were not seen in women, possibly because of the small sample size. Conclusions Visual impairment, neurological disorders, and malignant disease were independently associated with increased risk of suicide in elderly people. Serious physical illness may be a stronger risk factor for suicide in men than in women.