Incidence of Depression and the Coping Styles used for it by Under Graduate and Post Graduate Pharmacystudents: A Comparison

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental conditions worldwide affecting the general population. Students are presumably prone to this condition because of academic and personal stressors. Depressed students employ a variety of coping methods to deal with their condition. A prospective study was conducted by stratified random sampling in which questionnaire was distributed randomly to 196 undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students out of 401 registered students of the pharmacy department of the institution. The study estimated the incidence of depression using CES-D scale and determined different coping styles used by depressed university scholars with the help of 28-item Brief Cope inventory. Various academic and personal stressors were also identified. Overall, (118) 60% university scholars were depressed. Female students were more depressed than male students. Assignments, frequent examination and quizzes were the major stressors for the students. Religion and substance use were the most and least commonly used coping methods for depression, respectively. Measures should be taken by the institution to routinely assess the mental health status of students and health promotional programs should be initiated for improving the personal and professional life of university scholars.