Common mental disorders among medical students at Universidade Federal de Sergipe: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: Estimate the prevalence of common mental disorder and its associated factors among medical students of the Universidade Federal de Sergipe.

Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out, applying Self Reporting Questionnaire-20 to 473 students from the 512 medical students enrolled in 2006 and compared with compared with a structured questionnaire by the authors containing information on the socio-demographic characteristics, the teaching-learning process and the psycho-emotional experiences of the students. Freshmen were excluded after initial comparison with the students already exposed to the medical course.