Assessing Medical Students Knowledge in Diagnosis and Initial Treatment of Depression
Abstract
Depression is one of the leading causes of premature death, and one of the highest burdens of overall disability. Depression rates are around 13% in primary care settings. Depressive episodes are still underdiagnosed and undertreated. Factors that contribute to this include lack of detailed knowledge, lack of confidence in treatments among others. Thus, addressing these gaps would improve patients care. Moreover, bipolar depression can be difficult to distinguish from unipolar; and requires a different treatment. Improving education of students in these areas would improve care for patients. Aims are as follows: 1) assess students’ level of confidence and knowledge in diagnosing and treating depression, and any barriers to gaps in knowledge, 2) assess students’ knowledge in differential diagnosis of depression and any barriers to gaps in knowledge. We are assessing these by an online survey on website used by Medical College of Georgia for student questionnaires, sent to all third-year medical students after internal medicine rotation. The survey is sent through academic affairs office. This will provide valuable knowledge in improving our education and curriculum for the new generation of physicians.Affiliation
Department of Psychiatry and Health BehaviorDepartment of Psychological Sciences
Department of Chemistry and Physics