Abstract

PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION AMONG PARAMEDICAL STUDENTS

Vaijayanthimala Palaniswamy*, Sangameswaran Balakrishnan, Harinisri R.,
Iniyan A. P. and Jagan V.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Depressive disorder (also known as depression) iscommon mental disorder. It involves depressed mood or loss ofpleasure of interest activities in for long periods of time. It can resultfrom or lead to problems at school, college and at work.it has very highpersonal, social and economic costs. Depression is also a major causeof death, particularly in young people, through suicide. Hence It’simportant to identify the factors of depression among paramedicalstudents. The vital objective of this study is to determine longitudinallyassess the relationship between depression and their academiclifestyles. Methodology: A cross sectional study was done among allthe students studying SSM College of pharmacy. The study includes60±1 students. The BDI (beck inventory tool) was used to identify ofdepression among students and used for calculation of socio Googleformand form-facadegraphic characteristic and variables. Results: Theprevalence of depression among students found to be as per score of each individual,Prevalence of depression was found to be 44.3%, 16.4% have borderline depression, 16.4%with moderate depression, 8.2% have severe depression and the remaining 3.3% haveextreme depression. Academic pressure, inter personal relationship among family and friendsand worrying about the future after completing the course, were the factors found to becontributing towards depression. Conclusion: There were 44.3% of paramedical students aresuffering from varies form of depression. Academic pressure, inter personal relationshipamong family and friends and worrying about the future after completing the course, were thefactors found to be contributing towards depression.

Keywords: Depression, Prevalence of depression, Paramedical students, Academic pressure.