Longitudinal assessment of depression, stress, and burnout in medical students.

Background: Medical students can and do suffer from mental disorders is a concept yet to get wide acceptance. There are few studies comprehensively evaluating depression, stress, and burnout in medical students, especially in a longitudinal way in India. The current study aims to assess the impact of medical education on the development of psychological morbidities and the role of personality.

Materials And Methods: First-year medical students of a leading medical college of India were enrolled on admission and given anonymized, validated, self-administered questionnaires assessing depression, stress, burnout, and personality. This was repeated at the end of 1 year. Data were analyzed independently as questionnaires were anonymized.

Results: We found that 1 year of medical college showed a significantly increasing depression ( < 0.01) and stress ( < 0.01). Overall burnout did not increase significantly. However, only disengagement dimension of burnout increased significantly. Personalities with weak capacity to adjust had a significant positive correlation with depression ( = 0.277, < 0.001) and stress scores ( = 0.210, = 0.008). However, burnout did not correlate with any of the personality dimensions.

Conclusion: Right from the 1 year of medical education students perceive high-stress levels and have a high risk of depression. Burnout starts to creep in at least in the form of disengagement. This study provides a sound groundwork for planning interventions to reduce student's mental morbidity and avoid burnout.