Association of social anxiety disorder with depression and quality of life among medical undergraduate students

Abstract

Objective:Social anxiety disorder (SAD), (also known as social phobia), is characterized by intense fear of social interaction and often associated with social avoidance and impairments. There is high risk for depression, substance use disorder, and suicide among them.Subjects and Methods:It is an observational, cross-sectional, single centered, questionnaire-based study assessing the frequency of SAD and depression and their possible association with quality of life among 290 consenting medical undergraduate students. Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI II), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment scale (WHOQOL-BREF) were used to screen and assess severity of SAD, depression, and quality of life, respectively. The statistical analysis of proportions was done by Chi-square test, while the scores of SPIN, BDI II, and WHOQOL-BREF was compared using Mann–Whitney test or Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn posttest multiple comparison, using GraphPad InStat version 3.06.Results:Frequency of SAD is 11.37%, and depression is 8.96%. Females are more likely to experience SAD. Participants with SAD are more likely to experience depression (P < 0.0001) and have poor quality of life (P = 0.01). Participants with depression have higher SPIN score (P < 0.0001) and poor quality of life (P < 0.0001). Females are more likely to experience social fear (P = 0.02). Participants staying away from their family are more likely to experience social anxiety in comparison to their peers (P = 0.01). Severity of depression is correlated with severity of social anxiety (Spearman r = 0.4423 [0.3416–0.5329], P < 0.0001).Conclusion:Participants with SAD are more likely to experience depressive symptoms and have poor quality of life and vice versa.

Association of quality of life with physical activity, depression, and demographic characteristics and its predictors among medical students

“…In the present study, there was a significant indirect correlation between overall QOL score and all of its subdomains with depression score. Many studies showed that by reducing depression and increasing mental health, people's QOL increases,[ 31 32 33 34 ] which is consistent with the results of our study. Paro et al .…”

Psychiatric and psychological follow-up of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students: Prevalence and associated factors. Results from the national BOURBON study

“…In a Korean study published in 2007, 9.4% of medical students were found to be currently depressed and only 9.7% of them (0.9% of the entire sample) were correctly treated for depression. According to different severity levels, depression of Indian medical students ranked from 0.7% to more than half (Goel et al, 2016;Kumar et al, 2017;Ratnani et al, 2017). No data on antidepressant consumption of medical students of Asia, Africa or South-America and Latin-America is available to date.…”

Anxiety and Sleep Quality in Dental Students at a Private Brazilian University

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