Exploration of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Medical Students: An Institutional Case study

Abstract

Due to the ever expanding population in India, the education system has become highly competitive. As a result, the children begin to face the pressure of competition from the pre primary level itself in the form of year-end examinations which determine their promotion to the next higher grade (Rentala et.al;2019).Adolescence is said to be a period of stress and strain. Adolescents are a special group because of their developmental stage and the special problems (Mahapatrao et.al.2012). Effects of examination stress may be lower performance in academic examinations; students come under depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, psycho-physiological problems (Barmola &Shrivastava, 2010). Objectives: to assess the level of stress and challenges faced by students and to suggest the measures to reduce it. DASS 21 standard scale was used to measure the depression, anxiety and stress among the students during exam period.