Background:

Identification of barriers to mental healthcare seeking among medical students will help organize student mental health services in medical colleges across India. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal behavior among medical students and to identify the potential barriers to mental healthcare seeking among them.

Methods:

In this cross-sectional observational study, the medical students from a medical college in South India were asked to complete a structured pro forma for sociodemographic details, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7),and Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). The barriers to mental healthcare seeking were assessed using the mental health subscale of Barriers to Healthcare Seeking Questionnaire for medical students. A cut-off of 15 was used for determining the presence of depression on PHQ-9. A cut-off of 10 on GAD-7 indicated the presence of anxiety disorder, and a cut-off of 7 on SBQ-R indicated suicidal risk.

Results:

Out of the 425 participants, 59 (13.9%) were found to have depression (moderately severe or severe) and 86 (20.2%) were found to have anxiety disorders (moderate or severe). A total of 126 (29.6%) students were found to have a suicidal risk. Preference for informal consultations, concerns about confidentiality, and preference for self-diagnosis were the most commonly reported barriers to mental healthcare seeking. Students with psychiatric disorders perceived more barriers to mental healthcare seeking than students without psychiatric disorders.

Conclusions:

One-fourth of the medical students were detected to have depression and/or anxiety disorders. Establishing student mental health services, taking into account the perceived barriers, will go a long way in improving medical students’ mental well-being.

中文翻译：

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患有抑郁症、焦虑症和自杀行为的印度医学生：他们为什么不寻求治疗？

背景：

确定医学生寻求心理保健的障碍将有助于在印度各地的医学院组织学生心理保健服务。本研究旨在估计医学生中抑郁症、焦虑症和自杀行为的患病率，并确定他们寻求心理保健的潜在障碍。

方法：

在这项横断面观察研究中，来自印度南部一所医学院的医学生被要求完成一份结构化的社会人口学细节备考表，即患者健康问卷 9 (PHQ-9)、广泛性焦虑症问卷 (GAD-7)和自杀行为问卷修订版 (SBQ-R)。使用医学生寻求医疗保健问卷的障碍的心理健康分量表评估了寻求心理保健的障碍。15 的截止值用于确定 PHQ-9 上是否存在抑郁症。GAD-7 的截止值为 10 表示存在焦虑症，SBQ-R 的截止值为 7 表示存在自杀风险。

结果：

在 425 名参与者中，59 人（13.9%）被发现患有抑郁症（中度或重度），86 人（20.2%）被发现患有焦虑症（中度或重度）。共有 126 名 (29.6%) 学生被发现有自杀风险。对非正式咨询的偏好、对保密性的担忧以及对自我诊断的偏好是最常见的寻求心理保健的障碍。与没有精神疾病的学生相比，患有精神疾病的学生认为寻求心理保健的障碍更多。

结论：

四分之一的医学生被发现患有抑郁症和/或焦虑症。考虑到感知障碍，建立学生心理健康服务将大大改善医学生的心理健康。