Prevalence of Anxiety, Depression and their Associated factor among Medical students in Bihar

Abstract

Objective: To assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression in medical students, to find out association between presence of depression, anxiety and socio-demographic factors and to find out correlation between depression and anxiety scores. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine at Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, Nalanda, Bihar, India. initial 4 months for filling of the questionnaires and remaining 2 months for data entry and analysis. Total 400 medical students include in this study. After obtaining informed written consent, students were given self-reporting questionnaire which included socio-demographic details, PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Results: out of 400 students, 175  (43.75%)  scored  0-4, 136  (34%)  scored 5-9, 61(15.25%) scored 10-14, 18 (4.5%) scored 15-19 and 10 (2.5%) scored more than 19 on PHQ-9 scale. distribution of students according to GAD-7 score was 218  (54.5%)  scored   0-4,  128 (32%) scored 5-9, 43 (10.75%) scored 10-14, and 11 (2.75%) scored 15-21 on GAD-7 scale. Of total 400 students surveyed, 225(56.25%) were found to have depression i.e. PHQ-9 score more than 4. 89 (22.25%) students scored ≥10 on PHQ-9 indicating a need for further clinical evaluation, as scores ≥10 suggest underlying major depressive disorder. Anxiety was found to be present in 182(45.5%) students. Median PHQ-9 score was calculated as 9±6 (Q₁-6, Q₃-12). Median GAD-7 score was found to be 8±5 (Q1-6, Q3-11).  Conclusions: There is a need for conducting regular psychiatric evaluations and counselling for medical students so that presence of mental disorders can be detected early in their course prompting immediate treatment.

Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, PHQ-9, GAD-7, medical students.