title: Social support and common mental disorder among medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Different kinds of psychological distress have been identified for students in the health field, especially in the medical school.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of mental suffering among medical students in the Southeastern Brazil and asses its association with social support.
  
  
  METHODS
  It is a cross-sectional study. Structured questionnaires were applied for students from the 1st up to the 6th years of the medical school of Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho", assessing demographic variables related to aspects of graduation and adaptation to the city. Psychological suffering was defined as a common mental disorder (CMD) assessed by the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Social support was assessed by the social support scale of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS). The association between the outcome and explanatory variables was assessed by the χ2 test and Logistic Regression, for the multivariate analyses, using p < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was of 80.7%, with no differences between sample and the population regarding gender (p = 0.78). The average age was 22 years old (standard deviation - SD = 2.2), mainly women (58.2%) and students who were living with friends (62%). The prevalence of CMD was 44.9% (95%CI 40.2 - 49.6). After the multivariate analyses, the explanatory variables that were associated with CMD were: feeling rejected in the past year (p < 0.001), thinking about leaving medical school (p < 0.001) and "interaction" in the MOS scale (p = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of CMD among medical students was high and insufficient social support was an important risk factor. Our findings suggest that interventions to improve social interaction among those students could be beneficial, decreasing the prevalence of CMD in this group.
authors.affiliation: Hospital das Clínicas de Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Adriano Gonçalves
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Neurologia, Psicologia e Psiquiatria, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Ana Teresa de Abreu Ramos
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Cerqueira
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Neurologia, Psicologia e Psiquiatria, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Cristina Pereira
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult