ABSTRACT
Background: Depression and anxiety badly affects the performance of an individual, especially medical students are exposed to many stresses during their education
Objectives: This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of depression among medical students at different levels of their MBBS course
Subjects and Methods: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive study, conducted at Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur. A sample of two hundred [200] medical students [100 males and 100 females] was chosen by stratified systematic random sampling technique. Their age range was 18 to 24 years. Agha Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess the depression among students, with students having score 2': 20 labelled as having depression. Data was collected on a specially designed questionnaire and entered into SPSS version 16.0 and was analyzed on the same software
Results: Out of total 200 participants 53[26.50%] fulfilled the depression criteria while 147[73.50%] scored below 20. Among students, frequency of depression gradually decreases from 1" year MBBS class [29.27 %] through 2"d year [25.64 %] to 3d' year [15.15%]. After 3d' year MBBS, frequency of depression among students increased through 4th year [25.53 %] to final year MBBS [35%]
Conclusion: There is high prevalence of depression among medical students. The rise in depression scores may be due to emotional distress initially on entering the course that decreased with time up to third year. It increased afterwards which may be due to burden of clinical work and ward duties. Academic burden during final year, feelings of having their target a few steps away and anticipation of future responsibilities may be the most stressful during the MBBS course