Patricio García-Espinosa¹*, Xóchitl Ortiz-Jiménez², Edgar Botello-Hernández¹, Rebeca Aguayo-Samaniego¹, Jorge Leíja-Herrera¹, GECEN Investigators¹ and Fernando Góngora-Rivera³

¹Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, México
²Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, México
³Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Universidario “Dr. José Eleuterio González” Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, México

*Corresponding Author: Patricio García-Espinosa, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, México.

Received: April 20, 2021; Published: May 25, 2021

Abstract

Objective: The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has caused feelings of anxiety, confusion, and panic among the world's population. Because of these psychological changes resulting from the stress caused by the disease, we sought to investigate the psychological impact of the pandemic on the university student community.

Material and Methods: We surveyed a group of medical students in two different periods of time to compare the psychological and social impact that the pandemic has had on these students, we found a high prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in the two stages, being higher prevalence in the winter season. A score of 10 or more was considered as a cut-off point in the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales to determine anxiety and depression, respectively. In addition, the Coronavirus Fear Scale and the Positive Experiences of Adversity Scale were used to determine their attitudes towards COVID-19 in winter.

Results: An increase in the number of percentage of students with scores greater than or equal to 10 on both GAD-7 PHQ-9 scales was observed; it was noted that in general students with high scores on these scales had fewer positive experiences and greater number of fears.

Conclusions: It can be observed that the university medical community is a population at risk for mental illnesses; the creation of effective strategies for the detection and control of mental health should be sought; the need for better mental health programs in universities and validation of virtual instruments is evident.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; College Students; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2

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Citation

Citation: Patricio García-Espinosa., et al. “COVID-19: Psychosocial Impact on Medical Students. Comparison of Summer-Winter Results”. Acta Scientific Neurology 4.6 (2021): 102-115.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Patricio García-Espinosa., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.