Abstract:

Background: Lack of knowledge about mental illness is so high among the society although about 75% of individuals suffer from mental illness prior to 24 years of age. This may contribute to a coverall higher cost burden on society and the health care system, as well as increase their risk of debilitating illness and suicide.

Objective: To assess level of awareness of mental illness among medical students at CUHAS.

Methodology: This was prospective cross-sectional study which included 197 CUHAS medical students who were ready to participate. Data was collected by using questionnaire and data entry was done in excel and analysis using SPSS.

Results: Among all the participants 70.1% had awareness about mental illness while 29.9% had no awareness on mental illness where the majority of students with no awareness were from first and second years while third to fifth years had no awareness on mental illnesses.

Conclusion and recommendation: Medical students third year up to fifth year are aware of mental illness the university curriculum indicates that all medical students should have psychiatry classes in their third year. I recommend that the university should have some programs for the lower classes such as magazines or books to enable the lower classes to inquire basic and general knowledge on mental illnesses. Also the students’ association should enact policies in their programs that will enable medical students to participate in giving general knowledge to the society as a whole on mental illnesses including risks, symptoms, impacts and so on.