Journal of Psychology and Clinical Psychiatry Review Article Open Access Mental health distress and academic performance of medical students: a review Abstract Volume 9 Issue 6 - 2018 Medical education is stressful in pursuing the courses and career of medical Liranso G Selamu,1 Mohan S Singhe2 professionals. On the other hand, medical education is perceived as being stressful, 1PhD Scholar in Social Work, Mangalore University, India and a high level of stress may have the unhelpful effect on cognitive functioning 2 and learning of students. The research method was based on the review of recent Research guide, Mangalore University, India research literature from PubMed, WHO, PsycINFO, and Global Health. Psychiatrists Correspondence: Liranso G Selamu, PhD Scholar in Social provide the treatment to the students, which are critical to consider transference and Work, Mangalore, India, Email counter transference issues, over professionalism, and instances of strong respects and recognition. And it’s better to understand the goal of medical education is expected Received: May 26, 2017 | Published: November 26, 2018 to train knowledgeable, competent, and professional physicians equipped to care for the sick people, advance the science of medicine, and promote public health. Patterns of proceeding to the school, and personality traits, support systems, and many other factors, affect who will experience stress and their ability to deal with it. Therefore, this systematic review journal indicated many perspectives and arguments about the mental health distress of medical students. Keywords: mental health, distress, wellness, academic performance, medical students Introduction an ecological context; screening for psychological distress in clinical practice; psychological distress scale and psychological distress. An A medical school in many countries is very highly expressively increasing number of students are arriving on college campuses with difficult, and the school life is quite stressful than other higher mental health issues.8 It is not uncommon for students to experience 1 education. Furthermore, university life is much different especially varying degrees of stress, anxiety, and depression during their time in medical school than high school. As students need to live alone and college, as well as they encounter both academic and other stresses less supported condition, and copying with the high pressure of study during their college experience. Some examples of non-academic 2 demands of the program is often tough for young folks. Medical stressors include personal relationships, work life, and family. Even students are predominantly suffers from stress during their course as a major life transition such as moving away from home to college because of academic pressure, classicist criteria and tough nature of can aggravate existing mental illnesses or trigger new ones9 College medical practice which requires involvement with human suffering, student mental health issues have been on the rise, especially in 3 death, sexuality and fear. Besides, at many occasion stress lead to recent decades. According to Hunt & Eisenberg,8 this rise may be poor physical health, mental distress, reduce students’ self-esteem a reflection of increased willingness among students to report these and have a negative effect on cognitive functioning and learning of types of issues, rather than an increase of mental health issues. An 4−6 students in the medical school. Multiple researches reported that increased awareness about these issues may have reduced the stigma stress damages psychological health. Therefore causes anxiety and associated with seeking help. Improved identification of mental health depression in medical students not only in advance countries but issues coupled with better mental health treatment options mean that 7 also developing countries. Psychological distress is a subjective students whose severe mental health challenges may have precluded experience. In other words, psychological discomfort may interfere them from going to college in the past are now able to attend college. with different subjective experiences and activities. Psychological More than 91% of college counseling center directors reported a distress can result in negative views of the environment, others, and rising trend of students with severe psychological problems on their the self. Sadness, anxiety, distraction, and symptoms of mental illness campuses.10 are manifestations of psychological distress. That is, the severity of psychological distress is dependent upon the situation and how we Likewise, medical school is a time of significant psychological perceive it. We can think of psychological distress as a continuum distress for physicians in training. Currently available information is with mental health and mental illness at opposing ends. As we insufficient to draw firm conclusions on the causes and consequences continue to experience different things, we travel back and forth on of student distress. Large, prospective, multicenter studies are needed the continuum at different times throughout our lives. Additionally, to identify personal and training related features that influence psychological distress is a term used to describe the general depression, anxiety, and burnout among students and explore psychopathology of an individual with a combination of depressive relationships between distress and competency. Prevalence of symptoms, anxiety and perceived stress. Included in this compilation psychological distress amongst medical students is substantial. Future are topics corresponding to mitigating adverse school experiences and research should move on from simple cross sectional studies to better psychological distress with parental support; psychological distress in quality longitudinal work which can identify both predictors for and Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com J Psychol Clin Psychiatry. 2018;9(6):675‒678. 675 © 2018 Selamu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Copyright: Mental health distress and academic performance of medical students: a review ©2018 Liranso et al. 676 outcomes of poor mental health in medical students. Psychological Additionally, medical students are exposed to diverse varieties of distress and low peer social support may synergistically increase the stress. It is reported during undergraduate medical education stress is probability of poor academic self perception among international related to academic, financial and social. Sometime stress arises from medical students. Promoting peer social relationships at medical compulsion to succeed and also in difficulties of integrating education school may interrupt the vicious cycle of psychological distress and system.14 Researcher identified stress of medical students are mainly poor academic performance.11 Causes of psychological distress are due to curricular overload but not due to personal difficulties. It is traumatic experiences, such as the death of a loved one, are causes of because of demanding, intense environment of medical education has psychological distress. Psychological distress can be thought of as a created excessive pressure on medical students.15 There are number maladaptive response to a stressful situation. Psychological distress of reports available indicates that medical schools environment is not occurs when external events or stressors place demands upon us that congenial and friendly to enhance psychological and physical health of we are unable to cope with. For example, we may struggle to accept students. It is less than 3% in any population suffers from psychiatric that a loved one is no longer with us. As a result, we become sad and diseases. Similar figure also observed with medical students before have trouble getting out of bed, we are unable to focus at work, and taking admission in medical school.16 World Health Organization17 we lose interest in social activities.11 Major life transitions moving to a define mental health “a state of well-being in which an individual new state or graduating from college, can be a source of psychological realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of stress if you are unable to cope with the demands that these transitions life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his place on you or are having difficulty adjusting to the new situation. or her community”. Some researchers indicated that the consequence Sudden unexpected events, such as a loved one’s death of a heart of failure of an organism to respond adequately to mental, emotional attack or being fired from a job, can also cause psychological distress. or physical demands, whether actual or imagined. People even Even everyday stressors, such as traffic, have the potential to cause in absence of major psychiatric disorders also suffer from socio- psychological distress. Some other sources of psychological distress culturally and lead to poor physical health and education status.18 include: cancer and other medical illness, divorce, starting a new job, Good mental health status is imperative to progress and maintain a being a victim of bullying, adverse school experiences, adverse work quality life for each individual.19 Most common psychiatric health experiences, infertility, and mental illness.12 disorders related to stress are depression