Depression among Students in sample of Iraqi Medical Collage

Abstract

Depression is a mental illness considered as one of the main causes of disability worldwide, Depression is a very common condition, but its prevalence varies widely between different countries. The aim of the study to Detect the prevalence of depression among medical students in selected medical colleges in Baghdad province at 2016/2017, 2017/2018.with detection of the severity of depression among the students who had positive results then to illustrate the percentage of treated students with comparison of the depression rates in two consecutive years.

A cross-sectional study, done in three medical schools in Baghdad, the study was conducted in the 2016–2017 and 2017-2018 academic years, involving all study years and both genders.

The depression prevalence increased from 21.9% in 2017 to 27.5% in 2018.The results indicated that the highest rate of prevalence of depression is in the 3rd year with 16.6% of all depression cases, and in females with 11:4 Female to male ratio of depression. The results showed that 21% of the depressed students have suicidal tendencies.    

Depression prevalence is most common among students of third stage, moderately sever type of depression is the most common, only 15% of cases receive treatment with reported cases of suicidal tendencies.