The influence of mental illness and poor psychiatric monitoring programs on students' performance in Umm Al-Qura University

Background: Mental illness is a term use to prescribe a variety of diseases that characterized by abnormal thoughts or behavior or mood of the affected individual. This survey based study aimed to determine the influence of mental illness and poor psychiatric monitoring programs on mind of medical students attending Umm Al-Qura University. Methods: This is a survey based study conducted in June 2022 that utilized an online questionnaire designed in Google Form. The study included all medical students in their second to sixth year at Umm-Al-Qura University. Results: There were 410 total students who participated in this study. About three quarters of the students were males (73.7%) and most of them were Saudis (97.3%). More than half of students were aged <22 years (59.6%). In general, 11.7% of students had been diagnosed with a mental health condition and 8.3% of students had received medications for mental health conditions. Additionally, 11.2% of students were following-up with a mental health specialist (psychiatrist or psychologist) and 8.3% of students were receiving medications for mental health conditions at the time. Conclusion: Our data shows that having a mental illness can have a negative effect on students' academic performance. Importantly, competent psychiatric monitoring programs can minimize the influence of mental illness.