Anxiety and Depression Disorders in Undergraduate Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Literature Review (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered several challenges on the mental health worldwide. Undergraduate medical students face considerable stress in their academic routines. Thus, there is a need to explore the implications of the mental health of undergraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE To review the global literature about anxiety and depression disorders in undergraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS we developed an integrative literature review on the occurrence of anxiety and depression symptoms in undergraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed the results on the occurrence of anxiety and depression and the severity of symptoms in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic using quantitative studies applying GAD-7 questionnaire for anxiety or PHQ-9 for depression. RESULTS We reviewed 85 selected studies and the results showed a significant prevalence of moderate and severe symptoms of anxiety and depression with 28.2% of participants presenting scores ≥ 10 on the GAD-7 and 38.9% on the PHQ-9. Statistical analyses revealed associations between higher rates of anxiety symptoms in developing countries and data collected after the lockdown period, in 2020, at the Pandemic lockdown. CONCLUSIONS Our findings highlight the need for specific interventions to support the mental health of undergraduate medical students, critically in the developing countries during a Pandemic crisis.