Academic performance of students who underwent psychiatric treatment at the students’ mental health service of a Brazilian university

Abstract

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: University students are generally at the typical age of onset of mental disorders that may affect their academic performance. We aimed to characterize the university students attended by psychiatrists at the students’ mental health service (SAPPE) and to compare their academic performance with that of non-patient students. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study based on review of medical files and survey of academic data at a Brazilian public university. METHODS: Files of 1,237 students attended by psychiatrists at SAPPE from 2004 to 2011 were reviewed. Their academic performance coefficient (APC) and status as of July 2015 were compared to those of a control group of 2,579 non-patient students matched by gender, course and year of enrolment. RESULTS: 37% of the patients had had psychiatric treatment and 4.5% had made suicide attempts before being attended at SAPPE. Depression (39.1%) and anxiety disorders/phobias (33.2%) were the most frequent diagnoses. Severe mental disorders such as psychotic disorders (3.7%) and bipolar disorder (1.9%) were less frequent. Compared with non-patients, the mean APC among the undergraduate patients was slightly lower (0.63; standard deviation, SD: 0.26; versus 0.64; SD: 0.28; P = 0.025), but their course completion rates were higher and course abandonment rates were lower. Regarding postgraduate students, patients and non-patients had similar completion rates, but patients had greater incidence of discharge for poor performance and lower dropout rates. CONCLUSION: Despite the inclusion of socially vulnerable people with severe mental disorders, the group of patients had similar academic performance, and in some aspects better, than, that of non-patients.

University Exams and Psychosocial Stress: Effects on Cortisol Rhythmicity in Students

“…Biological instruments and techniques for the evaluation of chronic stress and the relation with deleterious effects in the organism are fundamental. The possibility of biological quantification of the effects of psychosocial stress in undergraduate students is necessary since the incidence of mental illness in undergraduate students is high (Campos, Oliveira, Mello, & Dantas, 2017). This pilot study presents limitations related to the reduced number of volunteers who participated in the study because of adherence throughout protocol and the data were obtained from a convenience sample offering reduced generalizability of our results.…”

Mental health status of the general population, healthcare professionals, and university students during 2019 coronavirus disease outbreak in Jordan: A cross‐sectional study

“…Psychological well-being has an important impact on individuals' performance. This impact is well-documented among different populations including HCPs (Ramirez, Graham, Richards, Gregory, & Cull, 1996;Schafheutle, Seston, & Hassell, 2011;Wallace, Lemaire, & Ghali, 2009), general population (GP; Burt, Zembar, & Niederehe, 1995), and university students (USs; Andrews & Wilding, 2004;Bruffaerts et al, 2018;Campos, Oliveira, Mello, & Dantas, 2017;O'Malley, Voight, Renshaw, & Eklund, 2015).…”

“Mental health status of the general population, healthcare professionals, and university students during 2019 coronavirus disease outbreak in Jordan: a cross-sectional study”

“…Psychological wellbeing has an important impact on individuals’ performance. This impact is well documented among different populations including HCPs (Ramirez, Graham, Richards, Gregory, & Cull, 1996; Schafheutle, Seston, & Hassell, 2011; Wallace, Lemaire, & Ghali, 2009), general population (GP) (Burt, Zembar, & Niederehe, 1995), and university students (US) (Andrews & Wilding, 2004; Bruffaerts et al, 2018; Campos, Oliveira, Mello, & Dantas, 2017; O’Malley, Voight, Renshaw, & Eklund, 2015). Therefore, the study of the psychological wellbeing of these populations during COVID-19 pandemic is of paramount importance.…”