A Descriptive Study of Depressive Disorders among Medical Students in Jalalabad City

Depression is one of the most common and significant mental health problems, affecting approximately 280 million people globally. Medical students, who live in the stressful environment of the medical field, frequently exhibit depressive symptoms. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and severity of depressive disorders among medical students in the medical faculties of Jalalabad city. A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 1, 2023, to November 30, 2023, among students of the curative medicine faculties in Jalalabad, Nangarhar, Afghanistan. The sample size was 460, with an equal number of students randomly selected from each medical faculty and each academic year, from the 1st to the 5th year. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was utilized to screen for depressive symptoms. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28. All of the 460 medical students selected through a stratified random sampling method responded to the questionnaire. A total of 335 (72.8%) medical students had at least one type of depressive disorder. Among them, 140 (30.4%) had mild depression, 135 (29.3%) had moderate depression, 40 (8.6%) had moderately severe depression, and 20 (4.3%) reported severe depression. Notably, fourth-year students had the highest prevalence among all classes, with a rate of 74.2%. The study found a high prevalence of depressive disorders among medical students, highlighting the need for further studies to investigate the causes and associated factors of depression among medical students in Jalalabad City.