In 2010, Perales et al. found in medical students of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos a lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts than 4%. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of this problem among students from the School of Social Work at the university, as there are no data on the country. To estimate the prevalence of suicidal behavior and associated factors in students of the School of Social Work at San Marcos. METHODS: Cross-sectional analytical study on the universe of students enrolled in the School of Social Work in 2011. In group sessions, were applied measuring instruments (scales of self-measurement of depression and anxiety Zung, guest suicidal, homicidal thoughts and indicators of antisocial behavior and CAGE) students who previously gave written informed consent. Data were subjected to descriptive and specific analysis of key survey variables.

Objective: 1º) To evaluate San Marcos University School of Medicine Faculty professors’ knowledge on ethics, deontology and clinical bioethics; 2º) To identify the most frequent ethical problems in both professor-student relationship and teaching hospitals; 3º) With the results obtained to construct a workshop which, after being validated, could be offered to the whole faculty as a basic course; 4º) To contribute to the institutional moralization by reinforcing the institutional ethos. Setting: School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, Peru. Methods: For objectives first and second, transversal and descriptive design, with qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Following a pre selected criteria 26 professors and 2 Faculty authorities were selected to be interviewed in depth. Upon the qualitative results a specific question...

Celebrating Carlos Alberto Seguin’s first birth centenary (1907-2007) the author describes three facets of his exemplary life: his formative years, his presence in San Fernando School of Medicine during the difficult 60’s and his dignified attitude facing death. The advanced Seguin’s ideas upon medical education reform, joining the psyche and physical parts of human beings as an integral whole made him postulate to diagnose and treat not only ‘the illness’ but the whole person. Moreover, his methodological proposal of ‘formative groups’ in order to give the students the opportunity to elaborate their emotional reactions while interacting patients, were not well understood and caused conflicts that he preferred to avoid for the institution’s sake. He sadly understood that students of that time were not willing to make the necessary efforts to reach their best academic goal...

Objective: To describe and compare the medical students’ mental health of two Peruvian Public Universities. Material and method: Two medical student populations participated in the study: 1) 1115 students registered in 1997 at San Marcos University School of Medicine; and, 2) 508 students registered in 1998 at Trujillo University School of Medicine. Results: Male proportion was higher than female; mean age was 24 years in both populations. Mental health problems detected indicate high levels of stress, high lifetime prevalence of alcohol and cigarettes use/abuse, dissocial and violent behaviors. Besides the students’ lifestyle was affected by the medical career demands with few opportunities for social entertainments. Cconclusions: The study highlighted the presence of mental health problems in both populations. Students would be helped if a stress prevention program is established.

Objectives: 1) Ethical analysis of Daniel A Carrion’s (DAC) autoexperimentation taking as a variable his personality profile; 2) To evaluate the ethical dilemma publicly raised on October 6 of 1885 by Dr. Ignacio La Puente, at that time, the Faculty of Medicine’s Secretary. Material and method: 1) Qualitative classification of documents; 2) Classification of sources of references according to their origint; 3)Organization of a systematic chronological register; 4) Critical analysis of the classified documents and identification of DAC’s specific behavior characteristics; 5)Construction of his personality profile by identifying his behavioral response patterns by criteria of coherence, interdependency with the situational context, unicity and interrelation with the local and international context of his time; 6) Comparison of DAC’s personality profile with the basic qualifications...

Objectives: To delimit medical vocation as a research issue and to propose a hypothesis for its scientific study. Methods: Review of pertinent international and national bibliography to elaborate the research questions. Results: The medical literature reviewed shows insufficient problem delimitation and poor presence of scientific method for its study as well as abundance of thoughtful reflections of paradigmatic physicians about its essence. Conclusions: Upon current dehumanization risk of medical practice and Health Care Systems to surrender to the professional market economic pressure, it is urgent to produce valid knowledge on the issue of medical vocation to allow Schools of Medicine to apply it in candidate’s selection exams as well as during the professional academic process.

Purpose: To study medical vocation from a scientific perspective. Objectives: To analyze origins and development-associated factors ofmedical vocation in physicians considered examples of high-level professional behavior and medical vocation. Design: Qualitative study, withtypical case sampling and in-depth interviews. Setting: Institute on Ethics in Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Mayorde San Marcos, Lima, Peru. Participants: Physicians. Methodology: The sample consisted in 76 physicians selected by pre-establishedcriteria from the four more prestigious Peruvian medical institutions: National Academy of Medicine, Peruvian Academy of Surgery,San Marcos University’s and Peruvian Cayetano Heredia University’s Schools of Medicine. Informed consent was previously obtained.Main outcome measures: Medical vocation origins and associated factors. Results: Eighty-two per cen...

Objectives: To determine perceptions and development of medical vocation in undergraduate students of a Peruvian University School of Medicine. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Participants: Medical students. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were applied to 50 medical students from first through fifth year, inquiring on: 1) Definition of vocation, 2) Definition of medical vocation, and 3) Student’s vocational development. Main outcome measures: Comparison of medical vocation between current students and graduate phsysicians. Results: Half of the students were female, with mean age 21.7 years. Eight per cent were sons of physicians; 82% were born in Lima city. The students identified three characteristics in medical vocation: wish to help, will to serve, and disposition for sacrifice. In relation to his/her own vocatio...

(LP) of dissocial behavior indicators. Such findings compel to suspect the presence of dissocial personality in that population. On the purpose to add knowledge to this problem, the present paper analyses the concept of dissocial personality and discusses the results of a pilot-study that evaluated its presence in recently admitted students to San Marcos University´s School of Medicine. In the first evaluation, it was found that 33 out of 175 students resulted positive to dissocial behavior indicators (LP: 19%). From this group, 30 showed up for a second diagnostic evaluation; 5 exceeded the cut-off point to dissocial personality and 11 showed scores very close to it, raising suspiciousness of such development. Upon these results we claim the university must accept the responsibility to continue researching this area, create early preventive-therapeutic interventions and curricula innov...

When in the 80s and 90s, I published several articles that identified the three main mental health problems in Peru: 1) poverty and underdevelopment, 2) widespread corruption and 3) violence1,2,3 I did not imagine the depth with which the second of them, corruption, eroded the institutional structure of the State, the democratic system and the social fabric of our country. In this regard, I do not need to provide evidence because they flow unchecked by all the observable levels of our society, from the highest to the most humble, as if the Peruvians, for the first time, had managed to agree on something, to tell Manuel Gonzales Prada who was right: "In Peru, where you put your finger jumps the pus."

Introduction. World Health Organization has pointed out the increasing suicidal risk in the 115 - 44 years of age. University students are inmerse in that age group risk. Objective. To estimate the prevalence of suicidal behavior and associated variables in undergraduate students of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM). Methodos. Transversal and analytic study. Target population: 24 118 students registered in 2015. The Suicide Behavior Questionnaire of the 2002, 2012 Mental Health National Survey, the Zung self-rated anxiety and depression scales, and the CAGE questionnaire for potential alcohol-related problems were applied to a sample of 1819 students obtained by a bietapic with probabililty proportional to size sampling procedure. Results. Life, last year, last 6 months, and last month prevalences of suicide behavior`s components of were, in that order: (i) death wish (35%...

Introduction. Previous studies pointed out mental health problems in undergraduate health students of School of Medicine from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM). Objective. To assess if there are differences between the frequency of mental health problems between first-year students and other years’ students from five professional schools of the UNMSM School of Medicine. Methods. A cross-sectional study. Validated instruments were used to assess mental health problems: suicidal intent, homicidal thinking, disocial behavior, alcoholism, depression and anguish. In addition, levels of resilience were evaluated. Students from all professional schools of the Faculty of Medicine were included in two analysis groups: first-year students and other years’ students. Results. 7,5% of suicide attempts, 18,9% of disocial behavior and 21,9% of ...

.

No description

In 2010, Perales et al. found in medical students of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos a lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts than 4%. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of this problem among students from the School of Social Work at the university, as there are no data on the country. To estimate the prevalence of suicidal behavior and associated factors in students of the School of Social Work at San Marcos. METHODS: Cross-sectional analytical study on the universe of students enrolled in the School of Social Work in 2011. In group sessions, were applied measuring instruments (scales of self-measurement of depression and anxiety Zung, guest suicidal, homicidal thoughts and indicators of antisocial behavior and CAGE) students who previously gave written informed consent. Data were subjected to descriptive and specific analysis of key survey variables.

La Teoría de Sistemas Aplicada a la Investigación es un conjunto de elementos que funcionan de una manera organizada e independiente, con un propósito y un objetivo que estos sistemas han sido clasificados en dos o tres grupos. Los sistemas cerrados mecánicos, por ejemplo mi reloj es un sistema cerrado en el cual todos los elementos que lo configuran participan en el objetivo de dar la hora, marcar el tiempo. Los sistemas cerrados tienen la ventaja de no depender del ambiente, yo puedo poner el reloj donde quisiera. La gran desventaja de los sistemas cerrados es que si falla una de sus partes el sistema se anula, no tiene posibilidad de auto recuperarse ni tampoco tiene posibilidad de recipiente de desarrollo. A diferencia de estos sistemas cerrados mecánicos se habla de los sistemas abiertos los sistemas vivos, los seres humanos somos sistemas de vida, no podemos existir sino depen...

Previous studies carried out by Perales et al. in medical students of San Marcos University (SMU), reported global suicidal behavior’s life prevalences (L.P.) (wish to die, suicidal ideation, suicidal plan and suicidal attempt) of 30%; and specifically of suicidal attempt, 4% while in undergraduate social work students were 57.7% and 14.8% respectively. Not having data on this problem in Education and Physical Education’s undergraduate students in Peru the present study is addressed to estimate the life-prevalences of these behaviors in this student population. OBJECTIVE: To identify students of SMU’ Education and Physical Education Schools who had presented suicidal behavior and to estimatethe life prevalence (L.P.) and its associated variables in this population. METHODOLOGY: Analytic, transversal study in the students registered in 2011 in those two Schools. Previously validated...

COVID-19, whose first case was confirmed in Peru in March 2020, revealed many deficiencies in our country, not only in its health systems, but also with respect to democracy and moral values of Peruvian society. This paper reviews both ethical and mental health problems, pointing out difficulties between the state and the civil society for working together against the pandemics, and also stating the presence of population groups that instead of protecting themselves, ignore regulations for social distancing and isolation facilitating the transmission of the viral agent. An explanatory scientific and moral hypothesis is proposed aiming to explain such conduct. Also, taking advantage of all the energy generated by a crisis and the possibility of turning this into a developmental current, some measures to be taken by the government are proposed, with the purpose of trying to correct mental ...

COVID-19, whose first case was confirmed in Peru in March 2020, revealed many deficiencies in our country, not only in its health systems, but also with respect to democracy and moral values of Peruvian society. This paper reviews both ethical and mental health problems, pointing out difficulties between the state and the civil society for working together against the pandemics, and also stating the presence of population groups that instead of protecting themselves, ignore regulations for social distancing and isolation facilitating the transmission of the viral agent. An explanatory scientific and moral hypothesis is proposed aiming to explain such conduct. Also, taking advantage of all the energy generated by a crisis and the possibility of turning this into a developmental current, some measures to be taken by the government are proposed, with the purpose of trying to correct mental ...

En las palabras que siguen, deseo transmitir a los jóvemes psiquiatras y a los residentes aún en formación, algunas reflexiones que, a modo de consejos de colega mayor, aspiran a evitarles sinsobaores inncecesarios en su futura vida profesional.