INTRODUCTION: Medical graduation exposes students to a series of stressful experiences, which contribute to emotional vulnerability and disturbances. OBJECTIVE: Obtain information about the prevalence and quality of depressive symptoms among UFU's Medical students. METHODOLOGY: Depressive symptoms were traced using Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), which was applied to 81% of the Medical students at UFU in the first semester of 2004. Demographic data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The cut points for absence of symptoms, minor, moderated and severe symptoms were 0-3, 4-7, 8-15 and 16 or more points respectively. RESULTS: The predominant characteristics among the 400 evaluated students were young, female, single, native from Uberlândia, and living with their parents. Depressive symptoms occurred in 79% of the sample. According to BDI scores, 29% of the students had symptoms of light, 31% of moderated and 19.25% of severe depression. CONCLUSION: The results indicate a rate of depressive symptoms in medicine students higher than that found in the literature. The excessive number of study hours and the increasing anxiety, especially towards the end of the course, should be taken into consideration in the process of curricular changes.
Depression; Medical Students; Epidemiology; Medical, Education
