Depressive disorders in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Autores

  • Cristóbal Román Lefno Diocares Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Austral de Chile
  • Diego Pizarro Quezada
  • Camila Sanhueza Medina
  • Raúl Yunge Villegas
  • Diego Robledo Alvarado

Palavras-chave:

Depression, Mental Health, COVID-19

Resumo

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a global impact and has caused different institutions such as universities to stop their activities. The study of the consequences that this type of crisis generates for the mental health of the population is relatively recent, being an insufficiently researched area. It has been reported that medical students correspond to a population at risk for the development of mental health pathologies, so it is important to investigate this type of disorders at a local level. The PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire) scale for depressive disorders is a particularly practical tool for detecting these disorders and assessing their severity.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of depressive disorders in medical students and to classify the severity of its symptomatology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Cross-sectional study through online surveys with self-reported and anonymous responses. The instrument used was the PHQ-9 scale in its Spanish version validated in Chile. The scores obtained were tabulated to evaluate the frequency of each level of severity and the prevalence of major depressive disorder was determined.

Results: 97 students participated, where 14.4% met diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder, 16.5% for other depressive disorder, 48.5% for positive depressive symptoms and 20.6% for negative depressive symptoms. The item "Feeling tired" was the most frequent symptom in participants (48.5%).

Discussion: The prevalence obtained was lower than that reported by international studies carried out before the pandemic. Despite this, there is concern that a high percentage of students have presented positive depressive symptoms and a significant number of them have a major depressive depressive disorder.

Keywords

Depression, Mental Health, COVID-19

Referências

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Publicado

2022-03-03

Como Citar

1.
Lefno Diocares CR, Pizarro Quezada D, Sanhueza Medina C, Yunge Villegas R, Robledo Alvarado D. Depressive disorders in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rev Estud Med Sur [Internet]. 3º de março de 2022 [citado 14º de outubro de 2025];9(2). Disponível em: https://rems.ufro.cl/index.php/rems/article/view/117

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