Table 3.
Prevalence of mental health issues in medical students in the UK
| Category of mental health issue | Mental health issues | N (%) | |
| Burnout | High emotional exhaustion | 222 (28.0%) | |
| High cynicism | 253 (31.9%) | ||
| Low personal accomplishment | 262 (33.1%) | ||
| Anxiety/Depression-induced symptoms | Anxiety/Depression symptoms | Severe | 129 (16.3%) |
| Moderate | 176 (22.2%) | ||
| Mild | 228 (28.8%) | ||
| No symptoms | 254 (32.1%) | ||
| Anorexic tendencies | 353 (44.6%) | ||
| Bulimic tendencies | 22 (2.8%) | ||
| Binge-eating tendencies | 67 (8.5%) | ||
| Obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms | 384 (48.5%) | ||
| Physical symptoms | Insomnia symptoms | Severe (clinical) | 19 (2.4%) |
| Moderately severe (clinical) | 133 (16.8%) | ||
| Subthreshold | 287 (36.2%) | ||
| No symptoms | 342 (43.2%) | ||
| Somatisation symptoms | Very high | 118 (14.9%) | |
| High | 102 (12.9%) | ||
| Medium | 182 (23.0%) | ||
| Low | 237 (29.9%) | ||
| No symptoms | 142 (17.9%) | ||
| Substance use | Hazardous drinking | 494 (62.4%) | |
| Drug use | Yes | 48 (6.1%) | |
| No | 703 (88.8%) | ||
| Prefer not to tell | 38 (4.8%) | ||
| Personality disorders | Schizoid personality disorder symptoms | 370 (46.7%) | |
| Histrionic personality disorder symptoms | 270 (34.1%) | ||
| Antisocial personality disorder symptoms | 15 (1.9%) | ||
| Paranoia symptoms | 148 (18.7%) | ||
| Mood disorder | Bipolar symptoms | 33 (4.2%) | |
| Any of the mental health issues* |
|
768 (97.0%) | |
*When measuring if students had any of the symptoms for anxiety/depression and insomnia, we included those who had severe and moderate symptoms; for somatisation symptoms, we included those selecting medium to very high.