Study of Association between Psychological Stress and Depression among Undergraduate Medical Students from Asia Metropolitan (Amu) in Johor Bahru

Abstract

Background:Stress is a term that refers to the sum of physical, mental and emotional strains or tensions on a person. Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, decreased energy, feelings of guilt or low selfworth, disturbed sleep or appetite, and poor concentration. Psychological Stress among medical students is common as compared to other professional courses. The aim of the study is to study the association between Psychological Stress and Depression among undergraduate medical students in Asia Metropolitan University.Methods: A Cross sectional study was undertaken among 75 medical students in a private medical college, Johor Bahru. Validated questionnaires such as General Health Questionnaire and Beck depression Inventory (BDI) were used to screen Psychological Stress and Depression respectively.Results: Prevalence of Psychological Stress was 39.7% and Depression was 38.2% among medical students. There was a significant association between Psychological stress and Depression among medical students because the p-value <0.01.Conclusion: Emphasize should be laid on the importance of screening for Depression of medical students on a regular basis for early detection and rendering appropriate intervention like student Mentorship Program, group counseling, stress management training to protect the future professionals. Research SettingThis study involved students from two places:1. 1. Preclinical students (Year 1 and Year 2)at Masai, Johor Bahru. 2. Clinical students (Year 3 and Year 4) at Muar, Johor Bahru.

Study of association between psychological stress and depression among medical students in Mangalore

“…This finding was similar to a study done by Kittu and Kumar. 13,15 In this study, females have high prevalence of psychological stress (87.3%) and depression (76.3%) compared to males, which was also observed in a study by Marzo et al and Kumar et al 14,15 In this study, depression was higher among 1 st year of medical students compared to other years of study. However, Rawat et al also showed the prevalence of depression among 1 st year student was 72.6%, which was similar to our study findings.…”

“…There are very few documented studies to establish association between psychological stress and depression among medical students. 13,14 In this study, BDI was used to assess the prevalence of depression among medical students and the prevalence of depression was 72.9%. In a study done by Kittu, the prevalence of depression among medical student in Pondicherry was 71%, which was similar to our finding.…”

“…Each question has a set of four possible answer choices, ranging from 0 to 3 score and total score being 63. BDI scores were categorized into normal (1-10), mild mood disturbance (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16), borderline clinical depression (17-20), moderate depression (21-30), severe depression (31-40) and extreme depression (more than 40). 12 The data was entered into Microsoft Excel 16.0 and analyzed in SPSS trial version 18.…”

Humour as a Moderator of Stress and Defence Based Coping Mechanisms among the Youth of Kerala, India

“…Stress is a commonly used word that often refers to the sum of physical, mental and emotional tensions on a person (Marzo et al, 2016). Each person undergoes stress in different forms.…”