Prevalence and Correlates of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms Among Medical Students: The Role of Student Debt Burden.

Authors

Foroozan Afsharchi, Joshua F Edwards, Kailash S Ram, Jingru Huang, Valicia Hale, Ismail El Moudden

Published in

Journal of medical education and curricular development. Volume 13. Pages 23821205261449382. Epub Jul 01, 2026.

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined whether anxiety and depression symptoms decrease as medical students progress through training (suggesting adjustment disorder) or persist (suggesting chronic conditions), while identifying associated risk factors, including student debt burden and treatment effectiveness.
We surveyed medical students (years 1-4) at VHS-ODU using a sociodemographic questionnaire and validated screening instruments (GAD-7 for anxiety and PHQ-9 for depression) via RedCap from September to November 2024.
Among 126 students, Scores were higher in Years 2-3 than in Years 1 and 4, but differences by year were not significant (GAD-7 p=0.055; PHQ-9 p=0.352). Students with a prior mental-health diagnosis had higher symptoms (GAD-7 8.09 vs 4.31; PHQ-9 10.18 vs 4.72; p≤0.001). Among those with a prior diagnosis, scores did not differ by current treatment category (GAD-7, p = 0.900; PHQ-9, p = 0.263). Higher student-loan balances were associated with higher scores (descriptive only; group Ns were unavailable for testing).
Medical schools should prioritize proactive screening and timely access to care, bolster support during clinical training, and address financial stressors; longitudinal studies are needed to test whether such changes reduce symptom burden.

PMID:
42405022
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.