ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students in a medical college of Saudi Arabia
Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on premedical, 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students of College of Medicine, Qassim University. The instrument used to assess the anxiety and depression was Self administered questionnaire, The Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale [AKUADS]. AKUADS is a screening tool, and at a cut off point of 19, it has a Specificity of 81%, Sensitivity of 74%, a Positive Predictive Value of 63% and Negative Predictive Value of 88%. Data analysis was done on Epi Info version 6
Results: At the time of the study there were a total of 288 male students and 105 female students enrolled in the college. The overall response rate among the males and females were 68.7% and 99.0% respectively. Overall the prevalence of anxiety and depression in females were 66.6% and males 44.4% [p-value 0.01]. In the 15t year the prevalence in females were 89.7% and males 60% [P-Value = 0.006]. No suicidal ideation was reported by either males or females
Conclusion: Almost similar level of anxiety and depression was found in another study using the same instrument in a similar curriculum model medical college in Pakistan. Our findings are also consistent with the findings from other studies from western medical schools as well as other Asian and African medical schools using different screening tools