Study of the Effect of Mental Stress on Mental Health of Medical Students of Iran Azad University, Tehran Medical Branch

Introduction & There are high levels of depression and anxiety among medical students in comparison with the general population. We designed this study to determine the effect of some stresses on the mental health of medical students. An analytic descriptive study was performed on 320 medical students, 190 interns and 130 stagers in Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical Branch during February 2010. Students filled an anonymous questionnaire that included demographic and stressors items and a 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Using GHQ-28 questionnaire, we found that the prevalence of psychological distress between medical students was 43.3%. There was a significant relationship between age, marital status, level of education, residence, the number of home mates with mental health. But gender, having children, and educational status doesn’t have any significant relationship with mental health. Although problem in communication, economical and educational problems, interest in medicine, medical future opportunities and recreational activities are the most important stressors that have a drastic effect on medical student’s mental health. But there was no significant relationship between having a major stress in the last 6 months and the mental health. As the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in medical students is about twice the general population, so it seems that the reduction of the mentioned stressors that increase anxiety and depression in medical students, could have an impressive effect on medical student’s mental health.