Common mental disorders in university students

epidemiological approach about vulnerabilities

Abstract

Objetive: to identify the occurrence of mental disorders, common in students of a higher education institution and associate it with the socio demographic and academic caracteristics. Method: it's a data survey, exploratory, descriptive, quantitativeve approach, made with 378 university students from an institution in the inner city of São Paulo, applying the Self-Reporting Questionnaire. The data was analysed using the descriptive statistical analysis and instructions for the analysis of the instrument used. Results: 151 (39,9%) of the interviewed university students show a suspicious classification score for humor disorder, anxiety and somatization. Regarding the sociodemographic variables, the highest index was for women (43,7%), homosexuals (50,0%), black colored people (42,9%), in a stable union (50,0%). Regarding the academic variables, the highest index was between business administration students (57,5%), and morning shift students (44,0%). Conclusion: the need to planning prevention and recovery strategies related to the occurency of common mental disorders in these people is clear, in view of the vulnerability they are exposed.