Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.08.2003, Page 34

I ABSTRACTS / 27TH NORDIC PSYCHIATRIC CONGRESS
written defining the learning goals for medical schools. Attitudes:
The students’ attitudes towards alcohol drinking/drinkers are dis-
cussed in small groups. The objective of this exercise is to increase
the students’ awareness of different existing attitudes, including
gender differences, and their impact on the clinician’s readiness of
obtaining adequate alcohol history when interviewing patients.
Practical skills: The identification of heavy drinking by clinical
interview and subsequent intervention; assessment of alcohol/drug
intoxication/withdrawal symptoms; ethics (case discussions in small
groups relating to individual freedom versus community regula-
tions of actions towards people with alcohol/drug dependence);
prevention strategies; and spouse treatment.
Exaniination: One course-specific practical examination (i.e. alco-
hol interview/examination of professional patient) and one theore-
tical test (MEQ) as well as a test of clinical skills as a part of the
total exam in internal medicine and surgery.
S-X/1 Thursday 14/8, 11:00-12:30
Medical students, environmental stress and mental health
Marie Dahlin. Nils Joneborg, Bo Runeson, Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical
Neuroscience, Section for Psychiatry, St Gorans Hospital, Stockholm
nils. joneborg@spo.sll.se
Background: Medical school is conceived as a stressful university
education. Several studies have confirmed that medical students
often suffer from considerable stress, sometimes due to the load of
medical information to be studied, sometimes due to the responsi-
bility connected to their clinical practice. This is a study examining
environmental stress and mental health among medical students
and the variation over time during the eleven-semester long pro-
gramme.
Mcthod: A questionnaire was sent by mail to medical students at
the Karolinska Institute, in the fall of 2001 in their lst semester and
during the fall 2002, in their 6th and llth semesters. Response rates
were 89%, 97% and 86% respectively. The questionnaire included
perceived stress during studies and in other areas of life. Somatic
and mental health and personality features prognostic of future ill
health were focused as well as misuse/dependence of substances.
Comparisons are made possible by queslionnaires sent to medical
students in the same stages at the Lund University. Comparisons
are also made by questionnaires sent to other university students,
namely to the education of social workers at the Stockholm Univer-
sity.
Interviews were performed with students on the lst semester at
the Karolinska Institute. We will follow these groups longitudinally.
Conclusion: 62% of first year students rated their studies as stress-
ful. Last year students rated studies stressful in only 14%. There
seemed to be several areas contributing to the experience of stress
among medical students and these varied over time during the
studies. A larger share of female students had applied for profes-
sional help. The occurrence of depression, anxiety and substance
misuse will be reported as well as comparisons with other university
education.
S - X / 2 Thursday 14/8, 11:00-12:30
Subjective weel-being among young Norwegian doctors: A
comparative and analytical longitudinal study
Reidar Tyssen, Senior Researcher, Department of Behavioral Sciences in Medicine,
University of Oslo, Postbox 1111- Blindern. N-0317 Oslo, Norway
reidar. tyssen @basalmed. uio.no
Subjective well being among young Norwegian doctors: a compara-
tive and analytical longitudinal study.
This prospective study aimed to identify: 1) if the level of life-
satisfaction among young doctors differ from that in the general
population 2) predictors that promote subjective well being among
young physicians.
We carried out a longitudinal study of all Norwegian medical
students (N=631), which graduated in 1993-94 (Tl), response rate
83%, and approached them again in postgraduate year-one (T2),
and postgraduate year-four (T3), response rate 63%. The main
outcome was an index of subjective well being at T3. Several
possible predictor variables were included in the study. When
compared with a sample of the general population in the same age
and the similar socioeconomic group, the level of life satisfaction
was significantly lower among the young doctors, and this applied
to both genders. The predictors of subjective well being among the
young doctors will be presented at the conference. We will also
examine the relative and sequential importance of the predictors in
a block-wise multivariate regression model.
S-X/3 Thursday 14/8, 11:00-12:30
Sex differences in performance and stress among
medical students and young doctors
Jan Ole Rnvik, Research Fellow, Department of Behavioral Sciences in Medicine,
University of Oslo Postbox 1111 - Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway. Tore Gude.
j. o. rovik@basalmed. uio. no
Aims: To investigate sex differences in the predictors of perfor-
mance and medical school/work stress among medical students and
young physicians in a longitudinal study.
Methods: We present a prospective study of nationwide cohorts.
The first cohort comprises medical students throughout their curri-
culum, assessed at three time points during medical school (at start,
in the middle, and at the end). The other cohort comprised Norwe-
gian physicians that graduated in 1993/1994, they were assessed in
the last year of medical school, and at the end of the first postgradu-
ate year, and at their fourth postgraduate year. The main outcome
variables were performance and medical school/job stress as medi-
cal student/house officer. Predictor variables were age, gender, per-
sonality factors, interpersonal problems, coping, expectations of be-
coming a physician, presumed supportive and stressing conditions
at work and life events.
Preliminary results: Female students have higher scores on person-
ality factors like vulnerability, negative coping and perceived medi-
cal school stress (although not at the end of the curriculum) and
lower scores on problem focused coping and performance (at the
end) than male sludents.
Female physicians tend to be more stressed at work than male
physicians as they reach their forth postgraduate year.
34 LÆKNABLAÐIÐ / FYLGIRIT 48 2003/89