Abstract

SANCHEZ-MARIN, César; CHICHON-PERALTA, Jorge; LEON-JIMENEZ, Franco  and  ALIPAZAGA-PEREZ, Pedro. Mental disorders in medical students of three universities in Lambayeque, Peru. Rev Neuropsiquiatr [online]. 2016, vol.79, n.4, pp.197-206. ISSN 0034-8597.  http://dx.doi.org/10.20453/rnp.v79i4.2974.

Mental health disorders are a fairly frequent problem in several segments of today’s population, particularly among higher education students who, according to some inquiries, seem to be more prone to emotional and psychosocial problems. Objectives: To describe the most frequent mental disorders in medical students from three universities from Lambayeque, Perú, during the year 2012. Material and methods: Cross sectional study. The population under scrutiny included 998 students distributed by year of academic classes and chosen by consecutive sampling. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for screening of mental disorders was used. A descriptive analysis and an exploratory bivariate analysis with 95 % confidence intervals using chi2 and Fisher’s tests, were performed. Software STATA version 11 was used. Results: A total of 284 students were interviewed, the average age was 21.05 ± 3.8 years, 57.4 % were women, 98.2 % single, 61 % were enrolled in basic sciences, 6.7% had a prior diagnosis of depression, and 7.4 % h of anxiety; 140 students (49.07 %) reported at least one mental disorder. The most prevalent disorders were hypomanic episode (19.7%), and major depressive episode (17.3%). In the bivariate analysis, the presence of a mental disorder was associated with age, studyingin a private university, and being a basic science student. Conclusions: Mental disorders among medical students from Lambayeque seem to be highly prevalent, the more frequent ones being hypomanic and major depressive episodes, and suicidal risk. More comprehensive, extended and deeper studies of this nature are needed in this specific population.

Keywords : Mental disorders; medical students; depression; anxiety.

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