Evaluation of suicide risk in medical students

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Suicide is considered a serious public health problem and especially affects medical students, who present a high prevalence of suicidal ideation, of approximately 11.1%. The aim of this study is to evaluate the risk of suicide in medical students from a University in an inland city of the State of São Paulo, Brazil.METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study carried out with 169 medical students from stages I, II, III and V of the medical course. Two questionnaires were employed: the module C of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), in which the risk of suicide was classified as “low” or “moderate/high”; and a survey with 23 questions about clinical and demographic factors potentially associated with suicide risk. A preliminary exploratory analysis was carried out to investigate this association and a subsequent logistic regression was employed to perform a multivariate analysis.RESULTS: of the students who responded to the MINI questionnaire, 131 (77.5%) showed a low risk of suicide and 37 (21.9%), a moderate/high risk. The variables that were associated with suicide risk were: family history of suicide (RR= 5.90; p=0.001) and the diagnosis of mental disorders (RR=3.96; p= 0.004). Alcohol consumption was associated with suicide risk in the preliminary bivariate analysis (RR=4; p=0.046), but this association did not remain significant in the final model of the multivariate analysis (RR=3.54; p=0.059).CONCLUSION: The results showed that a family history of suicide and the diagnosis of mental disorders were associated with suicide risk and can be used to identify students at risk, as well as to guide preventive strategies for its prevention in Medical Schools.