Psychiatric problems and first year examinations in overseas students at Edinburgh University

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The relationships between psychiatric illness, lesser degrees of psychiatric symptoms and first year examination results in 121 students of foreign nationality or domiciled overseas are described. Overseas students were reasonably happy at the start of the year. This happiness declined as the winter progressed and then picked up again in the Easter term. It was, however, only the happiness level in the month of February that predicted academic failure. Symptoms of anxiety, depression and headache during the Easter term were also found to correlate significantly with first year examination failure. However, only eight students had a definite psychiatric disorder and only one student was referred to the psychiatrist. The practical implications of these findings for the organization of Student Health Services, with particular reference to the needs of overseas students, are discussed.