Mental Health Challenges in Students: A Futuristic View on Depression and Suicidal Behaviors

In recent years, university students' mental health issues have attracted much attention in scientific societies, and many studies have been carried out to improve the mental health of the student population. Depression and suicidal behaviors are among the common problems of mental health in university students. Evidence shows that these problems, in combination with each other, carry a large amount of physical, psychological, social, political and economic costs to the society. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the issues of prevalence, pathology, diagnosis, consequences, prevention and treatment of depressive disorder and suicidal behaviors in this society. Review of past research has shown that depression (10-85%) and suicide (suicidal thoughts ranging from 2.6 to 42.7% and suicide rates of 1.8 to 3.5%) are among the most common mental health problems of university students. In addition, the findings show that, despite the high prevalence of these problems, the identification, prevention and intervention of depression and suicide among students have not been successful. The most important reasons are the diverse and varied clinical presentation of students' depression, student's special stresses, certain areas of student performance that are affected by depression, and rejecting professional assistance. Also, mental health management programs at universities do not have the integrity and precision necessary to control these problems. Considering these cases, it is necessary to pay special attention to depression and suicide in the mental health management programs and to provide comprehensive and coherent evaluations in the areas of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of these problems.