Psychiatry Research EG

Background Medical education is perceived as being stressful, with negative effects on students’ mental health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess psychiatric morbidity among final year medical students from the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University. Participants and methods A total of 200 students were randomly chosen during attendance of their psychiatry round. Both male and female students were included in the study, and students with major medical diseases were excluded. All participants signed an informed written consent. Participants were subject to clinical assessment using the semistructured interview of Present State Examination (PSE). Data were transferred to the statistical package of social science version 20 for quantitative data analysis. Results Overall, 61% of the students were males and 39% were females, and the age of both male and female students ranged from 21 to 31 years old, with a mean value of 23.21±1.09 years. None of the students in the sample were diagnosed as having any of the psychotic disorders. Overall, 83 and 44% of students in the sample had subclinical mood and anxiety symptoms, respectively. Conclusion Most students had anxiety and depressive symptoms not mounting to a diagnosis, and a substantial proportion of medical students had an ongoing psychiatric condition.