Psychological Distress among Undergraduate Dental Students in Saudi Arabia and Its Coping Strategies—A Systematic Review

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to evaluate the studies that have reported on psychological issues among dental students in Saudi Arabia and to develop coping strategies to overcome these mental health-related issues. The present systematic review is in accordance with the guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The search for the articles was carried out in the electronic databases by four independent researchers. The data search was performed in the electronic search engines like PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, Embase, Cochrane and Saudi Digital Library for scientific research articles published from January 2000 until December 2020. STROBE guidelines were adopted for qualitative analysis of six articles which met the eligibility criteria. The analysis of the literature revealed that most of the studies included were conducted in the past 8 years in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Findings of this systematic review clearly state that dental students in Saudi Arabia experience higher levels of depression, stress and anxiety and stress during their education period, with a higher stress for female students compared to male students. There is an urgent need to introduce interventional programs and preventive strategies to overcome the long-term effects.

Academic and non-academic life stressors and their impact on psychological wellbeing of medical students

“…Faculty members should provide regular feedback to their students and collaborate to identify effective techniques for improving student performance. Students should participate in social activities that will help them build a sense of teamwork [13] . Students should be encouraged to have a healthy lifestyle (healthy food, frequent exercise, aerobics, appropriate sleep, and meditation) to improve their mental and physical health [57] .…”

“…Most importantly, instead of ignoring their DAS symptoms, students should be encouraged to talk about them. Students should also be taught various effective and practical stress management techniques [13] . Students should be encouraged to regularly communicate with their families and friends to build a solid support network [13] .…”

“…Students should also be taught various effective and practical stress management techniques [13] . Students should be encouraged to regularly communicate with their families and friends to build a solid support network [13] . Rehman et al (2017) suggested that advantageous for medical students to be aware of and employ spiritual wellbeing as a coping mechanism for stress and depression symptoms [58] .…”

“…Another study demonstrated high prevalence of depressive symptoms (39.27%) among the medical students [12] . A systematic review from Saudi Arabia reported several academic and non-academic factors related to psychological distress such as workload pressure, attendance, multiple assessments, lengthy curriculum, academic achievements, trust concerns, monetary problems, irregular eating patterns, and fear of the future [13] . A recent systematic review reported 30.9% to 77.6% prevalence of depressive symptoms among Saudi Arabian medical students [14] .…”

Burnout and Its Relation to Emotion Dysregulation and Social Cognition among Female Interns and Undergraduate Dental Students at King Khalid University

“…Dentistry is a gratifying, yet challenging profession. It requires an enormous number of poised social, cognitive, psychological, and emotional interactions to emerge as a successful dental professional [1]. Prolonged working hours, a highly competitive academic curriculum, and challenging clinical practice are among the significant factors that make dentistry one of the professions with the highest burnout rates [2,3].…”