Qualidade de sono e sintomas de depressão, ansiedade e estresse em estudantes do internato médico

Abstract

The Medical Internship is a final stage of the undergraduate course experienced by students in health services. Facing the daily reality of the future profession, inherent in this training stage, is considered a source of concern and stressors, which can impact the quality of sleep and predispose to the emergence/worsening of mental disorders. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of sleep and the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in students of the Escola Multicampi de Ciências Médicas do Rio Grande do Norte (EMCMRN/UFRN). The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. The invitation for voluntary participation was sent to everyone who was attending the Medical Internship in December 2021. Participants should sign the Term of Free and Informed Consen and fill out four electronic forms prepared in Google Forms: Socioeconomic questionnaire; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). From a sample of 80 students, only 28 answered the questionnaires. The sample profile indicated a mean age of 26.5 years (± 5.3 years), with a predominance of females (54%), single marital status (79%), Catholic religion (68%), with family income two minimum wages (39%), who live with family (32%) or friends (32%); and with the need to change city and/or state due to the medical course (93%). The average score obtained in the PSQI was 7 points (± 2.8 points), indicative of poor sleep quality and present in 68% of the sample. Students reported sleeping an average of 6 hours/night (± 0.64 hours), counted from the time they reported going to bed (23.03 hours ± 0.89 hours), waking up (5.5 hours ± 0, 57 hours) and taking time to fall asleep (21.25 minutes ± 14.38 minutes). An average score of 10 points (± 4.59 points) was obtained on the ESS. Despite the average index in the ESS being indicative of the absence of complaints of excessive daytime sleepiness, we observed that 36% of boarding students had sleepiness and 14% had severe sleepiness. In the DASS-21, the general classification was considered normal only for the stress component (64%). More than half of the students (57%) reported symptoms of depression or anxiety, with the moderate classification being more prevalent in both, and the symptoms of depression being more frequent in male students (X2 ; p < 0.05). From the study, it was observed that poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness and symptoms of depression and anxiety were prevalent in students of the Medical Internship of this institution, highlighting the importance of surveying the mental health condition and the pattern of sleep of Medical Internship students as an essential component in the search for coping strategies and harm reduction in favor of professional medical qualification. Expansion of the sample can be considered a strategy to add robust relationships to the results.