Psychiatry Research EG

Medical school students represent a special category of population. At a young age, they face several stressors, making them more vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, which are usually under-recognized, yet common and treatable. Depression and anxiety may influence their educational performance adversely [1,2] and increase the prevalence of smoking and drug addiction [3,4]. Moreover, these psychiatric disorders may predict problems later in life and, as a consequence, may affect their patients’ care [5]. Little is known about the true prevalence of psychiatric disorders (e.g. depression and anxiety) in this category of population [6]. The prevalence of depression, for example, varies among interview-based studies (6–8% in a USA sample, Zoccolillo et al., [7], and 16% in a UK sample, Guthrie et al., [8]). On the basis of self-rating questionnaires like the Beck depression inventory (BDI), some studies have reported the prevalence of depression to be in the range of 14–24% [9,10]. Few Arabian researches have studied psychiatric morbidity among medical students. One study carried out at Riyadh found that the prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity (including depression and anxiety) was 25% [11]. In Egypt, there have been a few studies on anxiety and depression among medical students [12–15]. At the start of the present study, the main aim was to estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students and to explore the sociodemographic factors affecting it 1 month from the start of the educational year and 1 month before the start of the final-year examination. The hypothesis was that there will be no significant difference in the prevalence of depression and anxiety at the start and at the end of the study. After theend of the first stage of the cross-sectional study carried out in November 2010 (2 months before the Egyptian revolution) and while waiting to start the second stage of the cross-sectional study 1 month before the final-year examination as planned, the Egyptian revolution started and then new, more important aims emerged: (a) to determine whether the prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students changed before and after the revolution (b) and to explore the student classes most affected after the Egyptian revolution. Thus, the study design was modified to perform the second stage of the study 2 months after the revolution.