Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug 19;14(16):5853.
doi: 10.3390/jcm14165853.

Depression in Romanian Medical Students-A Study, Systematic Review, and Meta-Analysis

Corina Lavinia Duica  1 , Silvius Ioan Negoita  2 , Alina Pleșea-Condratovici  3 , Lavinia-Alexandra Moroianu  3 , Mariana Daniela Ignat  3 , Pantelie Nicolcescu  3 , Anamaria Ciubara  3 , Karina Robles-Rivera  4 , Liliana Mititelu-Tartau  5 , Catalin Pleșea-Condratovici  3
Affiliations

Depression in Romanian Medical Students-A Study, Systematic Review, and Meta-Analysis

Corina Lavinia Duica et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Depression is a significant global mental health concern, especially among medical students. This study combines two components: (1) a cross-sectional assessment of depression and related psychological and demographic factors among students at "Dunărea de Jos" University of Galați, and (2) a systematic review and meta-analysis of published Romanian studies on depression in medical students. Methods: For the cross-sectional component, 495 students (Years I-III) completed online questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), personality traits, procrastination, and sociodemographic factors. In the systematic review, studies from PubMed and Web of Science were synthesized following PRISMA guidelines, with prevalence data being pooled via random-effects meta-analysis. Results: In the Galați sample, 34.0% of students had clinically significant depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 10). Depression was associated with female gender, being in the third year of study, low social support, high neuroticism, and procrastination. The meta-analysis (six studies, N = 1546) yielded a pooled national prevalence of 19.99% (95% CI: 18.24-21.73%). Conclusions: Depression is highly prevalent among Romanian medical students, particularly in Galați. The findings support the need for targeted mental health interventions in Romanian universities. Registration: This systematic review has been registered in the Prospero database (registration number CRD420251056873).

Keywords: Europe; depression; eastern; medical; mental health; personality; prevalence; psychiatric status rating scales; students; time management.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of depression severity categories (N = 450).
Figure 2
Figure 2
PHQ-9 scores by gender (N = 450). Error bars represent ±1 SD. The symbol represents outliers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
PHQ-9 scores by year of study. Error bars represent ±1 SD. The symbol represents outliers.
Figure 4
Figure 4
PHQ-9 scores by social support level. The symbol represents outliers.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Scores by cumulative exposure to risk behaviors. The symbol represents outliers.
Figure 6
Figure 6
PRISMA flow diagram of literature search.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Forest plot for prevalence with pooled prevalence [16,17,18,20,31,32].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization Depression. 2023. [(accessed on 9 April 2025)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression.
    1. Vos T., Lim S.S., Abbafati C., Abbas K.M., Abbasi M., Abbasifard M., Abbasi-Kangevari M., Abbastabar H., Abd-Allah F., Abdelalim A., et al. Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet. 2020;396:1204–1222. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. OECD. European Union . Health at a Glance: Europe 2022: State of Health in the EU Cycle. OECD Publishing; Paris, France: 2022. [(accessed on 14 April 2025)]. Available online: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-europe-2022_5074....
    1. Consiliul Economic și Social (CES) Sănătatea Mintală în România: Un Tablou Integrative. CES; București, Romania: 2023. [(accessed on 14 April 2025)]. Available online: https://www.ces.ro/newlib/PDF/2023/Tabloul-sanatatii-mintale-in-Romania-....
    1. Patriche D., Filip I., Tănase C. Epidemiologia depresiei. Rev. Med. Rom. 2015;57:260–262. doi: 10.37897/RMJ.2015.3.8. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources