LETTER TO THE EDITOR
REVISTA DE LA FACULTAD DE MEDICINA HUMANA 2024 - Universidad Ricardo Palma10.25176/RFMH.v24i1.6080
EARLY DETECTION OF MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
DETECCIÓN TEMPRANA DE PROBLEMAS DE SALUD MENTAL EN UNIVERSITARIOS
Allyson Espinoza García
1,a
1 Faculty of Human Medicine. Universidad Ricardo Palma. Lima-Peru.
a Medical student
Dear Editor,
Due to community transmission and the rising number of cases during the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive
measures had to be adopted. These included social isolation and quarantine, which have had effects on
people's mental health. The restriction of free movement, the discontinuity of routines, the decrease in
social interaction, the lack of traditional learning methods, and the new academic, technological, and
psychological demands have generated an increase in tension, stress, and anxiety in young people.
Stress is a state in which a person suffers from various emotional and behavioral disorders, produced by
poor adaptation to the social environment, which can be complicated by continuous tension states, in
which the organism responds with a series of physiological and psychological disorders (1).
University life represents a stage where many students are adolescents or young adults, with new social
responsibilities and greater psychosocial pressures, which may imply greater vulnerability to
psychosocial disorders (2). Moreover, university students not only face
stress caused by quarantine and virtual education but also must adapt to the change from their usual
place of coexistence, so adjusting to the new context will depend on whom they live with and the degree
of emotional closeness with their parents, friends, children, partner, or people in their care (3). This implies that the student has to adapt to other norms that do not
allow them to freely decide aspects of daily life (3). The most common
psychopathological disorders, along with stress, are anxiety and depression, accompanied by fears,
anguish, and doubts, causing anxiety and depression levels to be high, constant, and persistent over
time (4).
University students are currently struggling against various symptoms of severe psychological stress and
the greatest fear of academic instability after a devastating outbreak of COVID-19 (5). It was identified that they manifest transient emotional conditions in
various academic situations, among which were identified: the beginning of pre-professional practices,
presentations, and thesis preparation (6). Even in a Peruvian study, it was
found that students were characterized by presenting high levels of academic stress, due to certain
stress factors that generated physical, psychological, and behavioral symptomatology, and given that
they possessed limited coping strategies (7).
With all these determinants, the impacts on the mental health of university students generate more
stress, anxiety, sleep disturbances, anger, depression, and disillusionment, which can range from
moderate to severe levels (8) and, above all, can affect performance during
face-to-face classes, decreasing student academic performance, for which it is recommended that academic
entities be able to implement a mental health program for students, so that signs and symptoms of mental
health can be identified early, achieving prompt recovery and reintegration into the academic field.
Authorship contributions:
The author participated in conceptualization, research, review, and writing of the original
draft.
Financing:
Self-financed
Declaration of conflict of interest:
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Recevied:
December 2, 2023
Approved:
March 27, 2024
Correspondence author:
Allyson Espinoza García
Address:
Jirón José Chamot Biggs. Mz. A, Lot 11, 3rd floor. Urb. Los Jazmines de San Roque.
Santiago de Surco. Lima-Peru.
Phone:
(+51) 966610013
E-mail:
allyespinoza.ae@gmail.com
Article published by the Journal of the faculty of Human Medicine of the Ricardo Palma University. It is an open access article, distributed under the terms of the Creatvie Commons license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/), that allows non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is duly cited. For commercial use, please contact revista.medicina@urp.edu.pe.
