Mental health of students of medicine.: An empirical study

Objectives and Methods. Concerning mental disorders, both physicians and alumni of medical sciences report a higher symptom load than the average population. Up to now however only a few studies have been conducted concerning the mental health of medical students. The aim of this study is to explore, whether medical students show a higher symptom load than their peers and whether there are differences concerning sex, phases of the studies and point of origin. For this survey the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) was applied to 390 medical students from the University Leipzig. Their results were compared to a representative sample of peers (n=225). Results. The analysis of variance shows significant differences between the male and female student samples on the one side and the same sex peer samples on the other. Both student samples scored significantly higher on the scales Other Anxiety Syndrome, Major Depressive Syndrome and Stress. Additionally, male students scored higher on the Other Depressive Syndrome scale and the Somatoform Syndrome scale. Further analysing the medical students sample, the females' measures were significantly higher for the Somatoform Syndrome, Depression and Stress scales. In addition, an interaction was found between sex and point of origin. Conclusions. Medical students report more symptoms of mental disorders than their peers. Therefore extensive prevention concepts are needed for this group.