Prevalencia de riesgo de trastornos psiquiátricos en estudiantes de pregrado de la escuela de medicina de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile / Prevalence of risk for mental disorders among medical students

Background: Stress caused by the high physical, intellectual and emotional demands imposed to medical students, renders them specially susceptible to the development of mental disorders. Aim: To assess the prevalence of risk for mental disorders among undergraduate students at the Medical School of the Catholic University of Chile. Material and methods : The Twelve Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ 12) was voluntarily answered by medical students from the first to the fifth year. Results: Sixty eight percent of the total population (305 students) answered the questionnaire. Forty one percent of students were at risk, defined as scoring five or more points in the GHQ 12. The average score was 3.9ñ2.2. First year students had a higher score than fourth year students (4.6ñ2.2 and 3.4ñ2.1 points respectively, p <0.05). No gender differences were observed. Conclusions : Our results are similar to those of other publications concerning psychiatric risk among medical students

Dimorfismo sexual en el núcleo mediano del rafe humano: estudio preliminar con el método de Golgi Cox / Sexual dimorphism in human medial raphe nucleus: a preliminar study using the Golgi Cox method

Brains from a female and a male newborn who died from an asphictic syndrome were examined to study the cytoarchitecture of the median raphe nucleus using the Golgi-Cox and morphometric methods. This nucleus is part of the serotonergic system. The morphometric analysis showed in the female newborn a significant increase of neurons. Also she had a higher proportion of ovoid and multipolar cells and a lower proportion of fusiform cells than the newborn male. Our findings suggest that this neuronal distribution may be the anatomical substrate for a serotonergic specific system in each sex