Abstract

BEDOYA-LAU, Francisco N.; MATOS, Luis J.  and  ZELAYA, Elena C.. Academic stress levels, psychosomatic manifestations and coping skills in medical students from a private university of Lima in the year 2012. Rev Neuropsiquiatr [online]. 2014, vol.77, n.4, pp.262-270. ISSN 0034-8597.

Stress and emotional disorders in students are a problem worldwide, especially in medical schools. Objectives: Determine the stress levels, psychosomatic manifestations and coping strategies in medical students from first, fourth and seventh year of a Private University in Lima, in 2012 academic year. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study, with a sample of 187 students, that included 52.9% males and 47.1 % females, with a mean age of 23.34 ± 1.70 years. Analysis of frequencies and percentages by sex and year of study was used. The Fisher Exact test was performed to evaluate the relationships between coping strategies, levels of stress and psychosomatic manifestations. Results: The prevalence of academic stress reached 77.54%, the seventh grade students had the highest levels meanwhile males had lower stress levels as compared to women. The most common stressor was work overload and teacher evaluations. Assertive skills and implementation of a plan were the coping strategies most frequently used by students with low stress levels. Conclusions: The recurrence frequency of psychosomatic manifestations was moderate, with predominance of psychological reactions in both gender and in all three years of study. Further research is needed for the evaluation of medical students under antidepressant therapy

Keywords : Psychological stress; coping skills; psychosomatic medicine; medical students.

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