Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: December | Volume: 8 | Issue: 12 | Pages: 9-12
Frequency of Anxiety Disorders in Medical Students
Dr. Johncy James1, Dr. Chandini S2, Dr. Safeekh A.T3
1PG Resident, 2Assistant Professor, 3Professor and HOD,
Department of Psychiatry, Father Muller Medical College Hospital, Mangalore, Karnataka
Corresponding Author: Dr. Johncy James
ABSTRACT
Background: Among psychiatric disorders, anxiety disorders are most prevalent in any age category, and are more common in females. In medical students, stressors like financial problems, workload, academic pressure, strained teacher-student and parent-child relationships, family problems, friendship issues, medical illness, psychological problems and worries about the future correlate with anxiety. In the background of paucity of literature in anxiety disorders among medical students, present study is aimed at studying anxiety disorders among medical students.
Aims: To evaluate the frequency of anxiety disorders in medical students; to compare and correlate severity of anxiety, and to evaluate socio demographic and clinical profile of medical students with anxiety disorders.
Methodology: The study is an observational cross sectional study, conducted in FMMCH, Mangalore (November 2017-May 2018). 137 undergraduate medical students meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria were evaluated for their clinical characteristics using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Severity of anxiety disorders was assessed based on the BAI score as, mild (score 0-21), moderate (score 22-35) and severe (score 36 and above) and it’s relation with socio demographic and clinical variables was evaluated.
Results: About one-third of the respondents had moderate anxiety (33.6%) and 3.6% had severe anxiety. Females had higher anxiety scores than males. Among medical students with significant anxiety, stressors were found to have statistical significance.
Conclusion: There is a high frequency of anxiety disorders in medical students, which highlights the urgent need for intervention. This would help improve their academic performance and quality of life.
Key words: Anxiety disorder, medical students, severity, BAI