Abstract
Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazil's government implemented quarantine in March 2020, leading to the closure of schools. This has caused changes in daily routines, such as social distancing and distance learning, which could impact mental health. This study aims to prospectively evaluate mental health in medical students in 2018, 2019, and 2020, during the COVID-19 quarantine.Methods: Students from Jundiai Medical School were invited to participate in this study in the years of 2018, 2019, and 2020 (from March to June, during COVID-19 quarantine). The Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), created by the World Health Organization to investigate nonpsychotic psychiatric symptoms, was used as a measure to evaluate mental distress. The questionnaire was made available online and contained two different sections: sociodemographic information and SRQ-20.Outcomes: In the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 a total of 860 SRQ-20 questionnaires were completed. Overall, SRQ-20 mean scores were 8·2±4·6 and SRQ-20≥7 frequency - above cut-off - was 60·5%. When comparing the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, no differences were found for both SRQ-20 scores (8·4±4·7, 8·2±4·6, and 7·8±4·4, respectively; p=0·351) and SRQ-20≥7 frequency (62·2%, 60·9%, and 59·2%, respectively; p=0·762).Interpretations: Along the three studied years, there was no indication of changes in prevalence of nonpsychotic psychiatric disorders as measured by SRQ-20. The maintenance of daily routines through remote learning for students attending first to fourth-year classes in 2020, and the continuation of adapted internship activities for students attending fifth or sixth-year classes in 2020 could have contributed to these results. Funding: Funding was provided by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico)Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.Ethics Approval Statement: This research has Ethics committee approval.
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