History of Anxiety, Panic Attacks or Depression and Analysis of the Impact on Quality of Life in Medical Students.

Abstract

High competition for results, too many study hours, courses with a huge hours total,  among other reasons, are pointed out as causes for the high rate of anxiety and depression in medical students. This work aims to evaluate the impact of previous doctor-diagnosed history of anxiety, panic syndrome or depression on quality of life of medical students and religion through a cross-section study with application of the World Health Organization questionnaire to assess quality of life in its short format (WHOQOL-BREF), plus a questionnaire with questions related to the history of previous anxiety, panic syndrome or depression, religion and where their families reside in 405 medical students from São Paulo, Brazil. The results showed that students with prior history of anxiety, panic syndrome or depression diagnosed by doctors (34.57%) had lower quality of life, an index demonstrated in the four domains: physical, psychological, social and environmental, when compared to the group without prior history of depression (p <0.005). Students who have religion have better quality of life with higher rates in the psychological domain (p <0.005). Students whose families live in other cities have a higher history of depression (Fisher exact test = 0.014). Conclusion: students who have a history of diagnosed anxiety, panic syndrome or depression and have no religion show the worst indices of quality of life and should be monitored by support programmes during medical school, with emphasis on students whose families live in other cities. Special programmes to improve the well-being should be studied and implemented.