title: The importance of hopelessness among university students seeking psychiatric counseling.
abstract: Hopelessness is a clinically important state relative to morbidity and suicide risk among university students. We examined its role in relation to presenting concerns, diagnosis, psychopharmacologic treatment and spiritual orientation among students seeking treatment at a university counseling center. The most commonly identified concern was anxiety, followed by stress and depression. Eighty-two percent were given a DSM IV diagnosis. Hopelessness was higher among students dually diagnosed with anxiety and depressive disorders and those who were started on psychiatric medication. Spirituality was inversely correlated with hopelessness and constitutes a personal characteristic warranting further investigation. The concerns bringing students to counseling, the rates of DSM IV diagnosis and the use of psychiatric medication suggest a preponderance of psychopathology over developmental or situational concerns that may be more prominent than has been noted in the counseling literature. In this regard, hopelessness appears to be an important feature even beyond its relationship to suicidality and merits attention and evaluation in student counseling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, NBV20N28, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue New York, New York, NY, 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Caroline B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galanter
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dermatis
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D037001:Directive Counseling; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012307:Risk Factors; D029181:Spirituality; D013333:Student Health Services; D013334:Students; D013405:Suicide; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs