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Introduction. Depression is a affective disorder characterized by apathy, decrease in the ability to feel pleasure, decrease interest. It is known that medical students are to subject large amounts of stress along the whole career. The World Health Organization in a study that included 14 countries found that the most common mental disorder in the health sector is depression (10,4 %).
Objective. Estimate depressive symptoms prevalence in medical students, Universidad de Panamá, 2007 and its association with risk factors.
Methodology. Analytic study done on medical students who attend to the Universidad de Panamá. The sample included 265 students enrolled in 2007’s second academic semester. The survey consisted of two parts, the first one consisted of the Zung scale and the second one included risk factors associated to depression.
Results. Depression prevalence in medical student of the Universidad de Panamá was found at 35,5 %, with 59,6 % being women and most of them in the basic cycle (37,7 %) followed by the preclinical cycle (27,5 %). In regards to family relationship quality, 57,8 % of the depressed students had a poor family relationship quality. It was noted that 6,4 % of the depressed students had alcoholic tendencies according to the CAGE test.
Conclusion. There is evidence that demonstrate that depression is common among health workers and this study contributes by showing us this problem already exists at college while studying this art
