Introduction:

Due to the stress of academic training, the importance of evaluating the mental health of medical students has been recognized for several decades.

Objective:

Analyze risks, and examine if the study variables were capable of predicting adverse events in the participants’ mental health.

Method:

Observational, cross-sectional, analytical study with a predictive research level. Students from a medical school in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico were included. The SCL 90R questionnaire was used, its dimensions constituted the dependent variables which were associated with various independent variables, highlighting a history of psychological and/or psychiatric care. All variables were dichotomized and a binary logistic regression model was used for the analysis. The field activity was developed on the university campus and the project adhered to current ethical regulations.

Results:

193 medical students from different school semesters participated, 52.3% were male. The psychological care was relevant as independent variable in all dimensions of the SCL 90R questionnaire (p<0.05), but psychiatric care was only relevant for somatization. By eliminating confounding variables, the multivariate analysis also reflects that these predictors remain valid (p<0.05). Being a foreign student, irregular and coming from public school are elements with an important association magnitude for depression and anxiety, paranoid ideas and psychoticism respectively. Female sex, foreign origin, >5th semester, irregular academic status, coming from a public preparatory school, average <8 and without a history of specialized mental health care are more likely to be affected.

Conclusions:

Medical students represent a group highly susceptible to presenting alterations in mental health.