Prevalência de sintomas ansiosos em acadêmicos de Medicina de uma universidade no interior da Paraíba.

Abstract

Anxiety is conceptualized as a vague and unpleasant feeling of apprehension, characterized by tension or a feeling of discomfort arising from anticipation of danger, something unknown or strange. The medical school, due to its strenuous workload, competitive environment, large number of disciplines, among other stressors, increases the chances of developing anxious symptoms, something that is observed empirically by the students themselves, and their peers. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the occurrence of these symptoms in the medical student population of the Federal University of Campina Grande. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative, analytical study in which the Beck anxiety scale and a sociodemographic questionnaire were applied. The sample was chosen by convenience and had 130 participants. As a result, there was a prevalence of 33.08% of moderate and severe anxiety symptoms, predominantly among women, students from the beginning of the course (up to the 4th period), aged between 18 and 25 years, practitioners of another religion other than Christian and with a family history of psychiatric treatment. Given the data, we suggest further studies with this population, with larger samples and in different locations, because only with further research in this area can intervention actions be established to minimize the psychological distress during the formation process of future doctors.