Depression among medical students at qassim university rate, severity, and contributing factors; using BDI II

Background: Medical education is an intensely competitive program; students go through severe stress while in it. They are known to be the victims of tremendous mental stress. They experience a variety of psychological changes in their medical school life from young insecure students to excellent physicians. Depression among medical students is an area of increasing concern worldwide. Objective: To determine the Depression rate among medical students at different levels of education, taking gender differences into account and find out their contributing factors. Methods: Depression rate, severity, and contributing factors were explored by a cross-Sectional study, conducted among medical students at Qassim University (males: 205; females: 127) in Saudi Arabia. Self administrated questionnaire including Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II) was used. Mean BDI score was applied and it's relation with different variables, such as, age, gender, place of staying, academic year, GPA, position among siblings, were assessed. Results: The prevalence of depression was 60.5%. It was higher among females than males students (show male female percentages; P-value .000). The prevalence was highest among the first year and lowest among the fifth year medical students (show respective percentages, which is statistically significant (P- value .000). The prevalence of depression among female students was higher than male students, which is statistically significant (P- value .000). Conclusion: Medical students should be informed of the high prevalence of depression among them and they should be encouraged to seek professional help.