Background

Depression is one of the most common medical illnesses worldwide. Medical students during their training will be subjected to many stressors, both mentally and emotionally.

Objectives

Assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms among medical students and to identify any association between depressive symptoms and some socio-demographic factors.

Material and methods

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Baghdad city, and our study sample was 800 medical students from all six stages at Al-Kindy College of Medicine. Out of those sample students, only a convenient sample of 301 students was selected, and they agreed to take part in the current study. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire form.

Results

The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms is 55.48% among students. The stage of the study, gender and social relationship were significantly associated with depression symptoms, with no significant association between chronic disease and monthly family income. The highest percentage of depressive symptoms was seen among students of the first, third, and fourth grade, being female, and social students with a p-value less than 0.05.

Conclusions

A high level of depressive symptoms among students at Al-Kindy College of Medicine was reported, with females being more depressed than males, more than half of the participants showing symptoms and most students in the pre-clinical stage, whereas the lowest level appeared among stage six students.