MEDICAL STUDENTS BEARING MENTAL STRESS DUE TO THEIR ACADEMIC SCHEDULE

Medical education is inherently stressful and demanding. Overwhelming burden of information leaves a minimal opportunity to relax and recreate and sometimes leads to serious sleep deprivation. Environmental and social circumstances play a major role in the onset of stress-related diseases. Developing countries share the heavy burden of social and economic challenges. A number of factors?including academic pressure, workload, financial concerns, sleep deprivation, exposure to patients‘ suffering and deaths, student abuse and a ―hidden curriculum‖ of cynicism have been hypothesized to contribute to this decline in students‘ mental health. This study determines the rate of anxiety and depression, and the associated social and environmental factors in undergraduate medical students. This study was divided into two measures theoretical problems and academic factors. Randomly data was collected by means of structured close ended questionnaire of 121 students from Fatima Jinnah Dental College(23 boys, 98 girls). Data was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 Factors causing stress in undergraduate medical students was a vast syllabus which makes it difficult for their time management, there was a direct and positive relationship for lack of time for assignments and fear of catching up after a leave.