Mental Health Morbidity among Students under the Aegis of the WBUHS: A Cross-sectional Online Survey

Background: Medical students may experience psychological distress because of the burden and rigorousness of medical education and training.Students experience multiple stressors and mental health morbidities, as per literature review. Aims and objectives:To explore the factors contributing to stress among students and to estimate the prevalence of mental health problems among students.Materials and methods: It was an online survey using Google Form and the link was sent to Principals of all medical, paramedical, nursing, and AYUSH colleges under the aegis of WBUHS through email.The respective principal then circulated the Google form to students through student WhatsApp groups.The study was done through a 61-item self-designed questionnaire.The questionnaire included patient health questionnaire (PHQ)-9 and questions about sociodemographic factors, stress factors, current or past physical disorders, past treatment for psychiatric conditions, spirituality, substance use, suicidal ideation, knowledge and attitude towards psychiatric disorders, and help-seeking behavior so on and so forth.Results: A total of 5,356 responses were received.A majority (86.9%) of the students reported single or multiple stressors in their lives.The top five stressors were, the pressure of examinations (52.3%), burden of study (44.3%), staying away from home (28.4%), quality of food (23.6%) and language difficulty (21.8%).A substantial number of students had suicidal thoughts (517, 9.7%), and made suicidal attempts (217, 4.1%) in the past.Suicidal thoughts and attempts were commoner in doctoral students.Very high prevalence of depressive symptoms (62.1%) was found among students, more among MBBS students (74.4%). Conclusion:The index survey showed a high prevalence of depressive symptoms among students and although lesser yet a significant proportion of students having suicidal behavior.Creating mental health awareness among stakeholders and increasing the access to mental health treatment seems to be the only way forward to tackle this challenge.However, findings of this survey must be interpreted with caution owing to its inherent limitations.