Medical Students' Stress, Psychological Morbidity, and Coping Strategies: a Cross-Sectional Study from Pakistan

Objective The authors studied the prevalence of psychological morbidity, sources and severity of stresses, as well as coping strategies in Pakistani medical students. Methods Medical students in Lahore, Pakistan, completed a cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire in 2013 on the sources and severity of various stressors. The General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) and Brief COPE assessed the psychological morbidity and coping strategies. Results Out of 1500 students, 527 responded to the survey. The prevalence of psychological morbidity was 23.3 %; 52.3 % respondents showed evidence of distress. By logistic regression analysis, GHQ-12 caseness was associated with being male and occurrence of health-related stressors. The most common stressors were related to academic concerns. Coping strategies showed variation by GHQ-caseness. Conclusion The significant psychological morbidity and distress warrants establishing support systems to support students and bringing about evidence-based changes to teaching and evaluation systems. Adequate counseling facilities should be made available and students encouraged to seek help.