Depression and Medical Study

Depression is a state of mood in which one feels sad, anxious,guilty,empty hollow.Even these all states can be present at the very same time. It is a fact that Depression is one of the most ‘’less-treated ‘’ disease of the World. One consciously or even unconsciously tries to deny that one is suffering from it.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) admitted that Depression is the worst cause of failure and suicides in Medical Students and there is a dire need to focus on eliminating it from the lives of the medical students.

In South Asia, surprisingly the results of various research also indicates that Depression is one of the leading cause of failure in the medical students. The Tragedy is that the most of the students even diagnose that they do have symptoms of depression in them but they don’t want to admit that they are suffering from it.Even if at some point they understand that are suffering from depression, they want to cure it. The best psychiatrists of the town are always available for the medical students at their doorsteps but still it’s believed to be a taboo paying a visit to the psychiatrist.

If we try to summarize the reasons and causes of depression in medical students of the West, we will come to know that the most evident factor is the unbearable cost of medical education and the ever changing policies of the insurance and leasing companies.

But In South Asia the reasons are quite being different. The first type of depression that a medical student suffers from is due to the behaviour of the society towards him if he hasn’t made it to the number one or even a better medical college. The people around you always expect to see you at the best medical college and incase you don’t come up to their expectations, they start taunting you in different ways.It has been found that nearly 60 percent students are never happy with the medical college in which they already are enrolled it. Even they themselves had aspired to reach in a better medical college but they end up making a compromise.This affects their studies badly and they unknowingly are suffering from depression.

Another major reason of Depression in medical life is the wrongly chosen ambition.There are quite a lot of students who don’t have any interest in medical education and the respective field. They just continue doing Mbbs because they feel that they don’t have a better option at the moment. The reasons for not leaving the Mbbs are various which may include Parents pressure or switching to some other filed like doing CSS ( competition exams ) after Mbbs or even may be running ones Dad’s business.Such type of students mostly aim at getting a Mbbs degree which is nothing but a piece of paper.

Now there is an other kind of depression that is not only present in medical students but as well as in all other students of various fields. Most of the times one tries to put his maximum effort in studying but it doesn’t come upto the standards of that field. The Best example of this sort of depression are the students of medical field. Studying all the day,taking tests and substages every week, then rotating wards and the worst part of the story is when you don’t get very promising marks. They are propelled to believe that they cannot come up with flying colours in the results and as a result they start paying less heed to the studies than required,which ultimately lead to decrease in the professionalism of a doctor.

It has been found that the major cause of the rise in depression in medical students is the hopeless situation of their future in their own country. Medical Students don’t see a very promising future in the country they live in . They believe that they would not have an option except doing an honorary(unpaid ) Post Graduate Residency in some hospital. It’s a very long path where one does not get fruit as expected. Most of the medical students have families to support and they want some short way to settle financially as well.For them, the best option is to leave their homeland and pursue their career in USA or UK and in order to accomplish this they start planning to do USMLE or PLAB during their MBBS period. Though some of them are capable to do both things ( mbbs and USMLE ) exam at the same time but most of the students lose the balance between them. They cannot manage to focus on both the things which ultimately lead to depression.

There is a dire need to start such sessions of students and Doctors where both can discuss the topic without hesitation and boundaries. Students should also eliminate their hesitation in asking about depression and should try to understand the impact of it on their studies and their future.