Psychological Distress Among General Medicine Students at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Brazzaville

<i>Introduction: </i>Psychological distress (PD) refers to a unique and uncomfortable emotional state experienced by an individual in response to a specific stressor. <i>Objective: </i>To assess psychological distress among general medicine students (GMS) at the Faculty of Health Sciences (FSSA) of Marien NGOUABI University in Brazzaville. <i>Patients and methods: </i>This was a cross-sectional analytical study. It was carried out over a period of 4 months at the FSSA. It focused on GMSs from the first to the seventh year of medicine who consented to participate in the study (653). The variables studied were sociodemographic, academic, related to lifestyle and the medical educational environment, related to psychological distress and related to the need for psychological help and stress management. <i>Results: </i>The prevalence of psychological distress among medical students was 63.4%. The average age of medical students was 21.5±2.8 years and the sex ratio was 0.6 in favor of women. Regular physical activity concerned 22.05% of GMSs and sleep duration was insufficient for 92.04% of them. The overall perception of the educational environment was satisfactory for 62.9% of EMGs and poor for 9.3% of them. The need for psychological help concerned 63.1%. <i>Conclusion: </i>The high prevalence of psychological distress among GMSs at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Brazzaville represents a real public health problem. Awareness-raising in this area appears to be necessary, and reforms would be important.