Academic difficulty among male Egyptian university students. II. Associations with demographic and psychological factors.

We compared 178 students with academic problems with 77 academically successful students. Academic difficulty showed highly significant associations with low socio-economic status, over-crowded housing, paternal behaviour problems and a poor relationship between the parents; also significant associations with family history of psychiatric disorder and living away from home. Academic achievement at school was no guide to university performance. Failed students had fewer friendships, especially with women, and more limited recreational activities. They also scored significantly lower on tests of verbal and non-verbal IQ, and worse on the Bender Gestalt and trail-making tests. EPQ results suggested that university students, particularly those with academic difficulties, are more neurotic and introverted than the general Egyptian population.

Prevalence of suicidal feelings in a sample of non-consulting medical students.

Five hundred and sixteen final-year non-consulting medical students were studied as to the occurrence of different degrees of suicidal feelings. A total of 12.6% reported some degree of suicidal feelings during the past year. Responses ranged along a continuum such that subjects reporting the more intense feelings also reported the less intense feelings. In 5.6% of the subjects the maximum intensity was only a feeling that life was not worthwhile, 4% had thought of taking their life, 0.9% had seriously considered suicide or made plans, and 0.4% had made an actual suicide attempt. Subjects experiencing suicidal feelings in the past year had had more minor psychiatric symptoms, particularly of depression, and had experienced more stressful events and somatic illness. In these respects they resembled the description of completed suicide.

Attempted suicide. An Egyptian investigation.

This study comprises 200 cases from a total of 1,155 patients who attempted suicide in 1975 and were admitted to the casualty department of Ain Shams University Hospital in Cairo, which has a catchment area comprising approximately 3 million people. A crude rate of suicide attempts in Cairo would be 38.5/100,000. There was a high percentage among the age group 15--44 years with no major differences between the two sexes. Single patients represented 53% of the total, with students showing the highest risk (40%). Depressive illnesses, hysterical reactions, and situational disorders, in that order of frequency, were the main causes of the attempt. Overdose by tablet ingestion was the most common method used (80%). Official government records are misleading and do not represent the true rate.