Burden of depression, stress and anxiety amongst faculty in a medical college

Abstract

Background: Stress, anxiety and depression are common nowadays with having debilitating effects on the affected person. Doctors face a lot of stress owing to various reasons. This stress affects them on a personal level and a professional level too. Methods: Fifty one faculty members willingly participated in the study. A self-reported depression anxiety stress scale (DASS)-42 along with a semi-structured pro forma was distributed amongst the faculty members of a medical college and hospital at Rajpura. Results: Most of the participants were female (60.8%) and married (86.3%). Majority were from the age group of 30–39 years (49%). Half of the faculty experience mild (25.5%)-to-moderate (25.5%) levels of depressive symptoms, about one-third reported moderate (33.3%) anxiety symptoms and about 43.1% reported mild stress symptoms. Conclusions: High extent of depression, anxiety and stress is present in faculty of a medical college. The contributory factors related to this stress, anxiety and depression need to be studied further. Mental health and working environment of the faculty need to be addressed.

Keywords

• anxiety
• depression
• faculty
• stress