Depression, anxiety, stress and resilience among undergraduate health sciences students of a rural tertiary healthcare centre in Maharashtra during the Covid-19 lockdown: A cross-sectional, online survey

BACKGROUND The Covid-19 pandemic caused a rapidly evolving and confused situation. Health sciences students (HSSs) are not immune to depression, anxiety and stress during such a pandemic. We aimed to assess the relation between depression, anxiety, stress and resilience among undergraduate HSSs during the Covid-19 lockdown. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional, online survey at a rural tertiary healthcare centre in Maharashtra. Data were recorded from study participants on sociodemographic details using the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Data were analysed using SPSS software version 15.0. RESULTS A total of 381 students participated in the online survey. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were 7.6%, 6.3% and 1.0%, respectively. There was a positive correlation between all three sub-scales of DASS-21. On BRS, 5 (1.3%) participants had high resilience, 216 (56.7%) had normal resilience and 160 (42.0%) had low resilience. Those respondents who had high resilience had lower rates of depression, anxiety and stress on DASS-21 sub-scales. CONCLUSION A proportion of HSSs had anxiety, depression and stress during the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown. Respondents with high resilience had less frequent depression, anxiety and stress. In the long run, strengthening resilience of HSSs may be useful.

Traditional Healing – At What Cost ?: A Case Report from Rural India

In rural parts of India still the “magico-religious beliefs” regarding the occurrence of the psychiatric disordersand “magico-religious treatments” of the psychiatric disorders often seen and prevail. Such beliefs andtreatments many times lead to physical as well as psychological trauma to an individual suffering from anypsychiatric disorder and may lead to delay in seeking an appropriate professional help in time. The presentcase report attempts to depict what kind of physical and psychological trauma a person with psychiatricdisorder suffered at the hands of faith healer in absence of lack of awareness about the psychiatric disordersamong family members and other villagers.