ArticleBMJ open2012
Prevalence and persistence of depression among undergraduate medical students: a longitudinal study at one UK medical school.
Article in BMJ open, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled prevalence of depressive symptoms among medical students: an individual participant data meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Prevalence rates of childhood trauma in medical students: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Prevalence of Depression Among College-Goers in Mainland China: A Methodical Evaluation and Meta-Analysis.Medicine · 2015Pooled it
- A six-year longitudinal study of a well-being evaluation and support program for medical students.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Evaluation of anxiety, stress, depression and hopelessness levels in clinical dental students of the faculty of dentistry: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Exploring Anxiety and Depression Among Medical Undergraduates in South Africa: A Cross-Sectional Survey.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An investigative study on the causes of depression and the coping strategies among clinical medical students in private universities in North Central Nigeria.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Trends in medical students' health over 5 years: Does a wellbeing curriculum make a difference?The International journal of social psychiatry · 2023Article
- Students' mental health during the pandemic: results of the observational cross-sectional COVID-19 MEntal health inTernational for university Students (COMET-S) study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- The Consequences of the Pandemic on Medical Students' Depressive Symptoms and Perceived Stress: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Survey with a Nested Longitudinal Subsample.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Family and Academic Stress and Their Impact on Students' Depression Level and Academic Performance.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Article
- A longitudinal investigation of mental health, perceived learning environment and burdens in a cohort of first-year German medical students' before and during the COVID-19 'new normal'.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- Self-Reported Sedative Drug Use Among Students Attending at University of Gondar, Gondar, Northwest, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study.Substance abuse and rehabilitation · 2021Article
- A longitudinal cohort study to explore the relationship between depression, anxiety and academic performance among Emirati university students.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- Taking care of our future doctors: a service evaluation of a medical student mental health service.BMC medical education · 2020Article
- When investigating depression and anxiety in undergraduate medical students timing of assessment is an important factor - a multicentre cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2020Article
- Prevalence of Depression among Oman Medical Specialty Board (OMSB) Residents.Oman medical journal · 2020Article
- Predicting stress and test anxiety among 1st-year chiropractic students.The Journal of chiropractic education · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo determine the prevalence of depression among male and female medical students, its change over time and whether depression persists for affected students.
designLongitudinal study comprising annual questionnaire surveys which included the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D).
participantsBetween 2007 and 2010 all 1112 students entering the Core Science component (Year 1) and all 542 students entering the Clinical component (Year 4) of the Cambridge (UK) medical course were followed-up annually.
methodsWe analysed, separately for men and women, mean HADS-D scores, the proportions whose scores indicated depression at different time-points and for students maintaining participation, the number of occasions on which their HADS-D scores indicated depression.
results725 Core Science and 364 Clinical students participated. Mean HADS-D scores ranged between 3.34 and 3.49 among all Core Science students and between 2.16 and 2.91 among all Clinical students. There was no difference between men and women in median HADS-D scores. Prevalence of depression ranged between 5.7% and 10.6% among all Core Science students and between 2.7% and 8.2% among all Clinical students. Over time Core Science students displayed no increase in mean HADS-D score. Among Clinical students only men displayed a small increase (time coefficient 0.33 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.55)). Prevalence did not increase over time. 220 Core Science and 150 Clinical students participated throughout the study. Of these, 18.2% and 10.6%, respectively, recorded HADS-D scores indicating depression on at least one occasion. Of 56 students recording depression at some point, 37 did so only once.
conclusionsPrevalence of depression among participants was similar to that reported for comparable groups. Among men approaching the end of clinical studies depression scores increased. In all years a minority of students displayed depression; for some this persisted. Mechanisms are needed to identify and support students suffering from depression, particularly when persistent.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.