Source: www.diseaseproof.com
I thank the author for this thoughtful piece on depression (Depression Among Medical Students). There were a number of learning points that I gathered after reading this article which I hope to share with all of you. The first is the fact that depression can affect anyone, anywhere and at any time. According to Arlina in her article titled Depression Among Medical Students, depression can affect medical students where she describes an anecdote that is likely too familiar to medical students. However, it is important to realize and remember that depression can affect anyone and any student studying in any course i.e. engineering, architecture or even the social sciences. What is more important is that both the student and their families and friends recognise this and assist the affected individual should the need arise. When one is affected with depression, studying becomes a major burden especially in our Asian society where a lot more is expected of us from our families and the expectation to perform well is tremendous. Those with depression often do not enjoy what life has to offer at the time and will usually isolate themselves or to all of us appear ‘anti-social’ or ‘introverted’. They cannot concentrate, have trouble sleeping and can be easily irritable. Simply put, our first thought and action is to ignore because we feel that they are too difficult to handle that we would much rather pretend it is not happening or sweep it under the carpet – when these are exactly what should not be done!
For medical students, help might be slightly easier. They do their pre-clinical years more often than not in a medical school which is attached to a teaching hospital. If they are in clinical years, they have access to various clinicians to call upon for help. Students in other fields may not have the same advantage but help is still easily available. Most major universities in Malaysia have either a guidance counsellor or student health centre. For those that may not have such services, all students need to be insured and have access to panel general practitioner clinics. If that is also unavailable, all Malaysians can access both government hospitals and clinics which are extremely affordable. Students with symptoms of depression will either be managed by the respective medical doctor or referred to relevant available local services. Supporting the available services further is Befrienders, a non-governmental organization involved with mental health care which is just but a phone/email/visit away. Help is easily available and should be used when required.
Thirdly, I think that Arlina has also touched on a very important issue in that mental health such as depression affects young people who often have many other ‘young people problems’. This is often the time where people look for friends, relationships, an identity, work towards a dream i.e. studying harder than ever and therefore often feel unsure about their own selves, including how they are feeling. As depression is often associated with feelings of guilt and reduces self-worth, young people who are further isolated because of their condition may be at an increased risk to deliberately self-harm. Therefore, it is important that friends and family are aware of early signs and symptoms of possible problems such as sudden or gradual self-isolation, declining academic performance, a noticeable change in mood i.e. depression, irritability; preoccupation with morbid thoughts and actions, and the voicing up of themes synonymous with life is not worth living.
Lastly, we in psychiatry hope that the public will support mental health campaigns to highlight depression and other illnesses. We also hope that various organizations and agencies support the need to increase available funds to do more work in mental health whether they are in research, advocacy, awareness, or assist funding for services such as community psychiatry facilities. Depression affects all and I thank the author for an article which is timely as we wait to celebrate Depression Awareness Week in November 2014.
Dr. Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin is a senior lecturer with the Department of Psychological Medicine, at a local university. He is also a consultant psychiatrist (Addiction Medicine) and certified smoking cessation specialist and trainer. Among his administrative duties include being the coordinator for the Nicotine Addiction research group of University Malaya Centre for Addiction Sciences (UMCAS). He is also pursuing his PhD at the National Addiction Centre, University of Otago, Christchurch in New Zealand.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Medical Gazette.
[This article belongs to The Malaysian Medical Gazette. Any republication (online or offline) without written permission from The Malaysian Medical Gazette is prohibited.]