ARE STUDENTS OF INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL FACULTY SUSCEPTIBLE TO DEPRESSION AND ADDICTIONS?
Depression has a direct impact on the educational, personal and social life of students, leading to significant disadaptation, use of addictions, in some cases it is the reason of suicide. Around the world 27% of medical students exhibit symptoms of depression and 11% have thought of taking their own lives. Since students of International Medical Faculty of Osh State University (IMF OshSU) are new comers, the process of adapting themselves to Kyrgyzstan as a foreign country is always associated with various difficulties that may cause depression, which requires to be investigated and taken preventive care of students by staff of educational system. Aim of our study is to analyze the presence of depression among students of IMF, across studying the frequency of their personal emotional expressions, presence of addictions, social and environmental factors that may cause to their depression in all academic years. The study was approved by Department of “Clinical disciplines 2” of IMF OshSU, Kyrgyzstan. A total of 1013 students were involved in the research, 667 boys and 346 girls. Mean age was 21.6 years. Data was collected by two specially designed anonymous questionnaires: 1. Created by authors according to students complaints. 2. PRIME-MD scale (Primary care Evaluation of Mental Disorders) that is used by primary care physicians to detect depression. By PRIME-MD scale we found 38.7% out of 1013 students have depression. Among them 25.6% suffered from mild, 9.6% moderate and 3.6% severe depression. In evaluation of addictions we found less level of substances abuse. 132 (13%) students frequently consume alcohol, among them 17(1.6%) when depressed and 34(3.3%) when bored, 81(16.7%) during parties. Frequent use of tobacco found in 29 (2.8%), use of hans in 5 (0.4%) and use of cocaine in 16 (1.5%). During survey of feelings associated with depression, there were 16.1% homesick, 15.1% were irritated, 14.1% often feeling angry, 10.6% aggressive, 9.7% depressed and 7.9% frequently were crying. 50 students noted that they have thoughts of suicide or hurting themselves nearly everyday over the last two weeks, 45 students more than half the days, 122 students in several days in last 14 days and 796 never thought suicide. Studying the environmental, social factors that could lead to depression in students showed that 53.9% feel upset due to lack of preferred food, 45.6% feel disadaptation due to language barrier, 40.8% tolerate local people’s discrimination, 37.3% complaining about policemen, 44.8% feel worried about their families, 38.4% have insufficient money, 26.0% suffering from physical health issues, 20.1% indicated trouble in getting medical certificates in case of sickness, 20.6% felt distressed because of friends relationship problems, 19.3% love relationship problems, 20.4% experienced house owner problem, 18.8% recorded teacher relationship problems.