DOI:10.14260/jemds/2014/1844 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences/ Volume 3/ Issue 02/ January 13, 2014 Page 416 STUDY OF DEPRESSION AMONG INDIAN COLLEGE YOUTHS Raghav Arora 1 , Lakhan Kataria 2 , Sandip Shah 3 , Kajal Tanna 4 , Dipti Joshi 5 , Anup Sinh Chhasatia 6 , Vidhi Patel 7 , Nisarg Shah 8 HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Raghav Arora, Lakhan Kataria, Sandip Shah, Kajal Tanna, Dipti Joshi, Anup Sinh Chhasatia, Vidhi Patel, Nisarg Shah. “Study of Depression among Indian College Youth”. Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences 2014; Vol. 3, Issue 02, January 13; Page: 416-421, DOI:10.14260/jemds/2014/1844 BACKGROUND: Depression, the most common disorder in psychiatry, affects about 121 million people worldwide. World Health Organization states that depression is the leading cause of disability as measured by Years Lived with Disability and the fourth leading contributor to the global burden of disease. Today, depression already is the second cause of disability adjusted life years in the age category 15-44 years. There is paucity of studies done in undergraduate students in our country.AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To find out the prevalence of depression among undergraduate students and finding correlation between various demographic variables and depression. Cross sectional study carried on 1066 under graduate students of medical, dental, engineering and basic science branches. METHODS AND MATERIAL: CRF (containing demographic details) & Beck Depression Inventory Scale-II were given. Students’ ≥18years of all academic years were included in the study. Statistical Analysis used were multiple ANOVA test and student t test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of depression was found to be 26.54%. More males (29.75%) than females (23.36%) (P value=.0001). Highest depression was found in basic Science undergraduate students (34.53%) followed by engineering undergraduate students (22.82%) followed by MBBS students (18.99%) and least in dental undergraduate students (17.54%) (P value=.00003). Students living at hostel (24.10%) showed least depression and maximum depression was found in students living at private rooms (31.54%) (P value= .0002).There is a need to diagnose and treat undergraduate students with depression at an early stage. This will help them to overcome their difficulties and lead a healthier life. KEY WORDS: depression, undergraduate students, medical, dental, engineering, basic science. INTRODUCTION: Depression is a major cause of morbidity worldwide 1 . Depressive disorder is one of the most common mental disorders, with lifetime prevalence of 16.2% 2 . Depressive symptoms are widely distributed in the population and disrupt people’s normal life. In much of the developing world, however, depression is largely unexplored as a research topic. Even though the mental disorder has been recognized as a research priority, only a few numbers of relevant studies have been carried out in low- and middle-income countries 3 . Approximately 60% of these countries have contributed fewer than five articles to the international mental health indexed literature 3 . University students are a special group of people that are enduring a critical transitory period in which they are going from adolescence to adulthood and making many major life decisions. Studies have shown that prevalence of depression among young adults seems to be increasing 4 and this can lead to impairment in the development of professional, academic, and social skills 5-8 . Academic burden, though have been identified as source of depression 9 . Also there is a strong relationship between severity of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in college students 10 .