One fifth of university students suffer from some form of mental illness

A study coordinated by the University of Évora (UÉ) concluded that a fifth of university students suffer from some type of mental illness, and that almost half of them were diagnosed after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A UÉ academy communiqué about the study, released this Monday, states that “19.2% of participants reported that they had already been diagnosed with some type of mental illness, and of these, four out of 10 (40.5%) were diagnosed after research. start of the pandemic.

The study, coordinated by UÉ and involving seven Portuguese higher education institutions and 10 others from seven countries in Europe and South America, collected 3,143 survey responses, symbolically launched on World Mental Health Day last year, October 10, 2022.

“We feel the need to conduct diagnostics to develop programs to promote mental health in academia,” said Lara Guedes de Piño, research coordinator and researcher at UE’s Center for Comprehensive Health Research (CHRC), as quoted in the statement.

Also, a professor in the department of nursing at the university explained that “the study was conducted because admission to higher educational institutions corresponds to a difficult transition” for students.

“Furthermore, international studies show that young people were most affected by changes in their mental health during the pandemic,” he said, adding that “7% of participants reported that their mental health worsened with the covid-19 pandemic.” “.

The CHRC researcher emphasized that the diagnoses most frequently mentioned by students in the Portugal study “were anxiety (16%) and depression (7%)” and that 10% of the participants reported that they “have both”.

The study, noted Lara Guedes de Piño, indicates that “23% of participants are taking medication for anxiety, depression, insomnia or other psychological problems, but only half of them have attended psychiatric consultations.”

According to a university professor, “75.6% have anxiety symptoms”, of which “one in three participants (37.8%) have moderate or severe anxiety symptoms”, while “61.9% have depressive symptoms and 23 4% had mild depressive symptoms and 38.5% had moderate to severe depressive symptoms,” he said, noting that he was most concerned about “feeling tired or low on energy (42%) and disturbed sleep (38%).”

One in four respondents said that they “had thoughts that it would be better for them to die or harm themselves,” and “27% reported that symptoms of depression cause great or extreme difficulties in their academic/work life.”

“The most important reason for refusing to seek help, which was indicated by the respondents, is the high cost of professional assistance (58.5%) and the long waiting time for an appointment (50.2%),” Professor UE emphasized.

The study also found that displaced students who go home every weekend have fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms, and those who are in romantic relationships have lower levels of anxiety.