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. 2017 Sep 20;17(1):173.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-017-1012-2.

Psychological distress among medical students in conflicts: a cross-sectional study from Syria

Tareq Al Saadi  1 , Sarah Zaher Addeen  2 , Tarek Turk  2 , Fatima Abbas  2 , Mahmoud Alkhatib  2
Affiliations

Psychological distress among medical students in conflicts: a cross-sectional study from Syria

Tareq Al Saadi et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Medical education can be a time of great psychological distress for students. The ongoing Syrian conflict represents an additional factor potentially contributing to poor mental health among medical students. Studies revealed high levels of psychological distress among Syrians. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of depression, anxiety and stress among medical students at Damascus University during this period of war.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) in addition to questions about demographic and financial characteristics, and questions about the effects of the ongoing war on the participants' lives.

Results: 350 students were included. Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was 60.6%, 35.1%, and 52.6%, respectively. Depression was more likely in females and those with "intermediate" or "insufficient" personal income. Anxiety was more likely in females and those with "insufficient" personal income while less likely in fifth- and sixth-year compared to second-year students. Stress was lower in fifth-year compared to second-year students and higher in "insufficient" personal income compared to "sufficient" personal income.

Conclusions: We concluded that Syrian medical students suffer from high rates of psychological distress. Females, second-year students, and those with "insufficient" personal income were the most affected. Students' perception of their own financial status, rather than the financial status per se was related to psychological distress. There was no evidence of a direct relationship between the ongoing conflict and psychological distress. Further investigations of causes and consequences of poor mental health in Syrian medical students are essential.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Medical students; Stress; Syria; Syrian war.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of Faculty of Medicine of Damascus University. The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

The objectives of the study were explained to the participants who were informed that their participation was voluntary, and anonymity was assured. Filling out the questionnaire and submission by the student himself/herself was considered as a declaration of willingness to participate.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Means and standard deviations of the participants’ DASS-21 subscales scores
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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