Stress among Medical Students Presented with an EEG at Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand
Purpose
A high level of stress among medical students is perceived as stress caused by strenuous medical programs and medical school is an extremely stressful environment, to begin with. For this reason, identifying stressors facing medical students is expected to enhance medical school lecturers’ understanding, leading to a provision of assistance for adequate supervision. The purposes of this study were to investigate stress levels in daily life and the electroencephalogram (EEG) characteristics during daily life and pre-examination period of 2nd-year medical students at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), Thailand, and to compare the EEG characteristics between these two periods.
Methods
Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) was used as a research instrument to collect data from sixty medical students. After that, EEG was administered in two periods for these studies (in daily life (baseline) and pre-examination 1 week). Paired t-test was used for analyzing the difference in the EEG characteristics in the 2 periods.
Results
The results indicated that the stress levels among medical students were mild (3.33%), moderate (53.33%), and high (43.33%). Academic Related Stressor (ARS) was found to be the main cause of stress among the subjects. All had a beta wave in 2 periods.
Conclusion
In conclusion, stress among medical students can alter brain function as measured by EEG. The findings could assist medical schools in better understanding medical students’ stress levels and planning how to teach in order to improve student achievement.
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