“Medical Student Syndrome”—A Myth or a Real Disease Entity? Cross-Sectional Study of Medical Students of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

Katarzyna Szczurek,Natalia Furgał,Marek Krzystanek,Rashid Zaman,Dawid Szczepanek,Krzysztof Krysta

doi:10.3390/ijerph18189884

Abstract

: BackgroundThe description of Medical Student Syndrome is based on the assumption that inexperienced medical students are prone to develop a pathological fear of medical conditions they are taught about. The aim of this study is to examine the sample of students (medical and non-medical) in order to assess and compare their level of hypochondriacal attitudes and health-related anxiety. We also examined other factors which might have had an influence on hypochondria and nosophobia attitudes among students. Methods: The study was conducted in two groups of students: 313 medical students at the Medical University of Silesia and 293 students at non-medical universities in Katowice, Poland. The study used the medical student syndrome self-explanatory questionnaire constructed for the study, taking into account the specificity of the group and the research problem. The research questionnaire was completed in an online survey by 606 students. Results: The results of the study showed that medical students obtained the same scores on a nosophobic scale as the non-medical students (p = 0.5). The analysis of hypochondriacal behavior showed significantly higher results in the non-medical student group (p = 0.02). In the entire study group, females and participants with mental disorders obtained higher scores in relation to nosophobia. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were more common in the group of medical students. Conclusions: Medical studies are not a risk factor for the occurrence of health anxiety and hypochondrial attitudes. Such factors are female gender and having a mental illness.

Highlights

Introduction published maps and institutional affilFor a number of decades, a widely held belief about the Medical Students Syndrome, affecting young people studying medicine, has been circulating in medical universities [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We investigated whether the pandemic situation could have contributed to the incidence of nosophobia and hypochondria symptoms
Despite a higher score on the scale of potential nosophobia in the group of medical students, who scored an average of 12.52 points, this difference in comparison to non-medical students with an average of 12.28 points, is statistically not significant (p = 0.5)

Summary

Introduction

For a number of decades, a widely held belief about the Medical Students Syndrome ( known as medical students’ disease), affecting young people studying medicine, has been circulating in medical universities [1,2,3,4,5,6]. It has been theorized that learning about life-threatening ailments in the course of medical training is associated with a risk of developing anxiety or illness anxiety disorder in which there is an uncontrollable and persistent fear of having a serious medical condition, described as nosophobia [2]. Exposing medical students to a large amount of clinical knowledge about different diseases may result in a search for symptoms affecting them, worrying about having a serious illness or an exaggeration of minor symptoms, which may lead to a self-diagnosis of a specific somatic disease; a condition called hypochondria [3]. The reasons for the emergence of such a phenomenon may include exposure to the symptoms of patients, iations.

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