Abstract

Background: A medical professional is viewed with great nobility and prestige worldwide. A medical education is perceived as being stressful, and a high level of stress may have a negative effect on cognitive functioning and learning of students in a medical school

Objective: To study the psychosocial problems of medical students as compared to students of other faculties

Methods: The study consisted 400 students (63% females and 37% males) of social sciences, engineering, medical and pharmacy from the well-known university. Questionnaire was used to collect the data to study the psychosocial problems of medical students as compared to students of other faculties. The questions were geared towards obtaining student’s personal views on the topic of depression and suicide as well as the use of drugs to cope with the demands of tertiary education.

Results: The data of this study revealed that 48% of the Medical students were under depression which is higher than other students from engineering (31%), pharmacy (23%) and social sciences (20%). It was found that more than 50% of the students from each faculty consuming alcohol. The study showed that the 34% of the medical students were consuming the drugs. Medical students were higher in number thinking about suicide which is significantly higher when compared to engineering, pharmacy and social sciences student.

Conclusion: Medical students have a higher incidence of depression compared to other students. The university should use a mechanism to identify the students with psychosocial issues and address their problems.

Keywords: Psychological effects; Medical; Engineering; Social sciences; Pharmacy