surveying the frequency of psychiatric symptoms among senior medical and non-medical students of tehran university

objectives: the present study was designed to investigate and compare the degree of suffering and severity of psychiatric symptoms among senior students of medicine and of other fields. method: the subjects were 126 senior students of medicine and 84 senior students of science, technology and art at two tehran universities. they were matched in terms of demographic factors. they were administrated by scl-90-r and a demographic questionnaire. the inclusion criterion was being final student and the exclusion criterion was set for individual who were clearly suffering from a psychiatric illness. the study examined the relationship between mental health problems and the following variables: suffering from war injuries, weak academic performance, traces of physical and mental illness in the family and in personal history, degree of satisfaction with the educational status, and the subject's religious attitudes. findings: the results demonstrated that except for phobias, mental health problems were significantly more prevalent in medical students than in students of other fields, and that the rate of this difference was clearly higher among female students of medicine.