RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Medical students can and do suffer from mental disorders is a concept yet to get wide acceptance. There are few studies comprehensively evaluating depression, stress, and burnout in medical students, especially in a longitudinal way in India. The current study aims to assess the impact of medical education on the development of psychological morbidities and the role of personality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: First-year medical students of a leading medical college of India were enrolled on admission and given anonymized, validated, self-administered questionnaires assessing depression, stress, burnout, and personality. This was repeated at the end of 1st year. Data were analyzed independently as questionnaires were anonymized. RESULTS: We found that 1st year of medical college showed a significantly increasing depression (P < 0.01) and stress (P < 0.01). Overall burnout did not increase significantly. However, only disengagement dimension of burnout increased significantly. Personalities with weak capacity to adjust had a significant positive correlation with depression (r = 0.277, P < 0.001) and stress scores (r = 0.210, P = 0.008). However, burnout did not correlate with any of the personality dimensions. CONCLUSION: Right from the 1st year of medical education students perceive high-stress levels and have a high risk of depression. Burnout starts to creep in at least in the form of disengagement. This study provides a sound groundwork for planning interventions to reduce student's mental morbidity and avoid burnout.
RESUMO
Faecal specimens collected from two outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis that occurred in southern Mumbai, India in March and October, 2006 were tested for seven different enteric viruses. Among the 218 specimens tested, 95 (43.6%) were positive, 73 (76.8%) for a single virus and 22 (23.2%) for multiple viruses. Single viral infections in both, March and October showed predominance of enterovirus (EV, 33.3% and 40%) and rotavirus A (RVA, 33.3% and 25%). The other viruses detected in these months were norovirus (NoV, 12.1% and 10%), rotavirus B (RVB, 12.1% and 10%), enteric adenovirus (AdV, 6.1% and 7.5%), Aichivirus (AiV, 3% and 7.5%) and human astrovirus (HAstV, 3% and 0%). Mixed viral infections were largely represented by two viruses (84.6% and 88.9%), a small proportion showed presence of three (7.7% and 11%) and four (7.7% and 0%) viruses in the two outbreaks. Genotyping of the viruses revealed predominance of RVA G2P[4], RVB G2 (Indian Bangladeshi lineage), NoV GII.4, AdV-40, HAstV-8 and AiV B types. VP1/2A junction region based genotyping showed presence of 11 different serotypes of EVs. Although no virus was detected in the tested water samples, examination of both water and sewage pipelines in gastroenteritis affected localities indicated leakages and possibility of contamination of drinking water with sewage water. Coexistence of multiple enteric viruses during the two outbreaks of gastroenteritis emphasizes the need to expand such investigations to other parts of India.
