[University crisis and student psychiatric service]

Abstract

This paper briefs a research on the influence of stressing environmental factors upon mental health conditions of university students. The study was undertaken at the Student Psychiatric Service, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. Three equal periods are compared. The first is a normal one; the others are disorderly and riotous, up to the point of foreing the discontinuance of academic activities for several months. As compared with the period of academic stability, the rates of mental disturbances show a steep rise in the periods of agitation. Schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, all kinds of difficulties in interpersonal relations, and somatic disturbances, are sharply increased, whereas complaints of less severe disturbances, like transient situational disorders, level up or decrease. Another significant rise is registered in the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes. The study leads to the conclusion that stress due to environmental disorders or social upheavals is an important factor in the aethiology of severe mental disturbances.