Prevalence and Various Risk Factors Associated with Suicidal Ideation Thoughts in Medical Students from a Medical College in Northern India.

Introduction: In medical school, suicide ideation is an important issue that has garnered increasing attention in recent years. Students in the medical field have an environment full of stress. Medical students are subjected to dealing with problems that produce lots of mental distress due to the surrounding environment, dealing with patients' deaths, issues related to different ethical backgrounds, and witnessing death and human agony.

Objective: In this study, we evaluated various risk factors that can cause suicidal thoughts.

Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on medical students of a medical college in eastern Uttar Pradesh. A total of 423 study participants responded. The participants were asked to respond questionnaire on sociodemographic variables and risk factors and a Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ 9) through Google Forms.

Results: A total of 18 (4.2%) respondents reported having suicidal ideation thoughts in the last 1 year and 12 students reported a cutoff score >9 in the PHQ 9 questionnaire. Depression, academic stress, use of alcohol, and abuse by physical or sexual means were the risk variables significantly linked to greater suicidal ideation thoughts. The prevalence of suicidal ideation among medical students is worrisome.

Conclusions: The data suggests that the initial steps in preventing suicidal ideation are that students should get proactive student counseling and early treatment if needed.