Comparison between the First and Sixth Year Medical Students in the Arabian Gulf University of Bahrain Regarding Anxiety and Depression

A cross sectional study involving all year 1 and 6 medical student of Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain in the year 2011-2012 was performed by self reporting anxiety and depression using HADS forms. The results showed that 33.96 % of year 1 and 55.07% of year 6 students showed anxiety, while student of year 1 and 6 showed 18.87% and 31.88% depression state respectively. Statistically the anxiety and depression were significantly higher in year 6 compared to year 1 students (Analysis of Variance ANOVA, p< 0.05). Neither of these mental states were significantly different in males and females students. The averaged score of male medical student was 9.64±0.4 for anxiety and 8.01±0.4 for depression compared to 9.88±0.5 and 8.13±0.5 which were scored in females for anxiety and depression respectively (ANOVA p˃0.05). It is concluded that the stress associated with studying medicine is continuous and accumulative during the years of the study and that medical students confrontation with extra stressors related to their studies in addition to the normal daily stressors of life making them more vulnerable to anxiety and depression states.