An investigative study on the causes of depression and the coping strategies among clinical medical students in private universities in North Central Nigeria.

Background: Depression is among known mental health conditions and students in schools of medicine are not immune to it. In this investigative study, 211 clinical medical students of two private universities from North-Central Nigeria were examined on depression prevalence, the contributory factors and their coping strategies.

Methods: The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), the Medical Student's Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) and identified coping strategies according to Coping Oriented to Problems Experienced Inventory (COPE) were instruments of data collection.

Results: The results were obtained by both descriptive analysis and test of association between some categorical variables. The depression prevalence amongst the participants was 159 (75.4%). Females (124 (78.0%)) were more depressed than males (35 (22.0%)). Factors identified as contributing to depression were the heavy academic workload (124 (78.5%)), insufficient family time (93 (58.1%)) and financial constraints (54 (34.0%)). The most utilized method of coping with their stress was engaging on social media (133 (84.2%)), followed by talking with relatives or friends (99 (62.7%)) and use of recreational drugs (20 (12.8%)). The findings from this study have shown that more than three-quarters of the respondents suffered from varying degrees of depression from mild, 63 (29.9%), moderate, 53 (25.1%) to severe, 43 (20.4%).

Conclusions: The heavy academic workload was a major source of depression. Colleges of Medicine should take pro-active steps towards their students' mental health and academic workload should be well spaced to reduce the stress imposed by the frequency of examinations.