Does medical school cause depression or do medical students already begin their studies depressed? A longitudinal study over the first semester about depression and influencing factors.

Objective: In the past, medical students have been found to be at increased risk for depressive symptoms compared to the general population. This study addresses the question, whether medical students already show these elevated depression scores at the beginning of medical school or whether it is the studies of medicine that leads to symptoms of depression.

Methods: In the winter semester 2018/2019, 148 medical students at a middle-sized German university answered a questionnaire during the first (T0) and last week (T1) of their first semester that examined various risk and resilience factors for initial depressive symptoms and their course.

Prevalence and predictive factors for depressive symptoms among medical students in Germany - a cross-sectional study.

Elevated levels of depressive symptoms among medical students have been the subject of international and national research before, yet associated risk factors and protective factors are to be determined. This study aims to show the burdens of depression at different stages of academic medical education with a special emphasis on correlated risk factors and protective factors. A total number of n=1103 medical students of a middle-sized German university were sampled and surveyed regarding depressive symptoms and correlating factors.