Background: Previous studies have shown that medical students are more prone to suffer from symptoms related to depression than other students. Even though there is some evidence that psychology students also experience such symptoms, research concerning the mental health of future psychologists is scarce. Objective: The aims of this study were threefold: (a) to determine the prevalence of symptoms related to depression among medical and psychology students (b) to investigate risk factors, which may have a potential influence on the development of depressive symptoms and (c) to examine resilience factors in order to indicate possible approaches to improve the mental health of the students. Methods: A total of 673 medical and psychology students completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to assess depressive symptoms, a neuroticism scale, and a standardized questionnaire for 13 risk and eight resilience factors derived from the literature. Results: While the results of previous research concerning the prevalence of depressive symptoms could be replicated for medical students (22% exceeding the cut-off in the BDI-II), psychology students demonstrated an even higher prevalence (28%). Ten potential risk factors and five potential resilience factors could be identified, which also showed a cumulative effect: The more risk factors students reported, the more depressive symptoms they experienced; the inverse effect was observed for resilience factors. Conclusions: Not only medical but also psychology students show elevated depressive symptomatology. In the university context, notably, the pressure to perform represents a potential risk factor, whereas the presence of just two resilience factors such as emotional support and study satisfaction contribute to a decrease of symptoms.

Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15- to 29-year-olds in Germany. Studies have shown that compared to the general population students are more affected by suicidal ideation, as one major indicator of an attempted suicide. This effect is observed all over the world, interestingly, it is also true for physicians. Therefore, we investigated whether medical students are at an even higher risk than their peers to develop suicidal ideation. Methods: N=1,103 medical students at a German university completed a self-reporting survey investigating socio-demographic, potential risk, and protective factors. The Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI)-II Item 9 “Suicidality“ served as the dependent variable. Results: N=130 students (11.8% of the total sample) reported suicidal ideation within the last two weeks. Stepwise computed logistic regression models including all potential risk factors resulted in 40% explained variance. The most significant independent risk factors were the BDI-score, usage of tranquilizers, feeling lonely, insufficient time for hobbies and prior personal mental health issues, whereas focus enhancing drugs showed to be the only independent protective predictor. The BDI-II score correlated positively with the number of students suffering from suicidal ideation. Conclusion: The prevalence of suicidal ideation in our sample medical student population exceeds that of the general population greatly, confirming existing data and emphasizing the need to raise awareness and establish prevention programs.