Depression in medical and nursing students, Bandar Abbas

Introduction: Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders that its
prevalence has been reported to be 10-64% among university students. This study
was performed to investigate the prevalence of depression factors in medical and
nursing students of Hormozgan University of Medical sciences in 2004-2005.
Methods: In this descriptive study, 190 medical and nursing students (with an equal
proportion) in medical and nursing faculties of Bandar Abbas were selected
randomly. The questionnaire which was designed in 2 parts was the way by which
data was collected. The first part included questions about the causes of depression
and in the second part 'Beck' depression test was used. Data were analysed by Chisquare
test and P<0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The results showed that the prevalence of depression was higher among the
nursing students (60%) than medical students (24.5%). The results showed that
causes of depression in nursing students were significantly related to the birth order
(P<0.04) and desire to study in their filed (P<0.01), but in medical students, causes
of depression were mostly related to marital status and psychoactive medications.
Conclusion: With regards to the results of this research which indicates high
prevalence of depression in students, it is necessitated to take appropriated
measures to reduce the factors causing depression, and ultimately to prevent its
consequences by prompt and on time diagnosis.