The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of medical students from the first to fifth year of a university of northeast of São Paulo

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of medical students from the first to the fifth year of a university in the northeast of São Paulo. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted with 89 students, from the first to the fifth year of the medical course at a university of northeastern São Paulo, carried out through an electronic questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied by the Google Forms platform, in order to obtain sociodemographic information and in order to identify the psychological conditions of the students, before and after the pandemic. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Results: The sample, aged 18 to 41 years, of both sexes, showed that 25,8% of the participants already had a diagnosis prior to the pandemic, the majority (73,9%) being Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Of the students without a diagnosis, 71,4% starded with symtoms of anxiety after the Covid-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Psychic suffering in medical students appeared in pre and post pandemic periods, the latter being aggravated by social isolation and changes in teaching, which highlighted the need for mental health support for improvement in the quality of life of medical students.