DEPRESSION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN JAMNAGAR, GUJARAT.

Background: Depression among medical students is often a neglected public health problem  havingnegative consequences like poor scholastic performance, suicidal tendencies etc. Appropriate strategies should be developed to identify such cases and referred to concerned speciality to avoid possible consequences.  Objective: This study aims to find out prevalence of depression among medical students and identifying its association with various socio-demographic and other factors attributed to it. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted at M P Shah Government Medical College, Jamnagar involving medical students of all three academic years with self-administered questionnaires based on the centre for epidemiological studies Depression Scale- Revised (CESD-R) to screen for depression. Total sample size was 281. Results:  The prevalence of depression was 16% among medical students. We couldn’t find any association between prevalence of depression and attributable factors like poor family relation, not selecting medical career by choice, presence of debt for educational purpose etc.except a history of experience of a stressful event in family or college life. Conclusion: 16% Medical students were suffering from depression and there was a positive association between depression and stressful event of medical students in college/family life.