Introduction With the spread of COVID-19 around the world, several interventions have been reported to be useful to control disease transmission. However, the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of medical students is underreported in the Arab world. This study aimed to explore the rates of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and to identify the factors associated with a higher risk of these mental disruptions. Method This was a cross-sectional study where medical students were approached to answer an online questionnaire via emails from the administrative affairs in the College of Medicine in SQU from 16/01/2021 to 18/05/2021. A 21-item depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21) scale was used as a self-reporting tool to measure the negative feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. Results Out of 700 students, 184 (26.3%) students responded fully to the study questionnaire. More than half of the participants were females (58.7%, n=108), and the mean (SD) age was 20.31 (1.642). Most students were Omani (93.5%, n=172), and 34.2% (n=63) lived in Muscat. More than half of the students (51.6%) were in phase 2 of the academic years, in which the majority were considered within the cohort ≥2017 (81%, n=149), with a mean (SD) GPA of 2.9 (1.5). Scores from the DASS-21 scale showed that 29.4% vs 27.2% vs 14.7% had extremely severe depression vs anxiety and vs stress. The proportion of students who reported lower GPAs was significantly associated with higher scores of severe-to-extremely-severe depression (P=0.001), anxiety (P=<0.001), and stress (P=0.001). Living in Muscat vs other regions was associated with severe anxiety and stress (P=0.038 and P=0.007, respectively). Conclusion Similar to a few studies in Oman, this study confirms the high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results may be utilized to alert decision-makers, student academic council, and academic authority to the need to adopt a preventive mental health policy and design guidelines with resilience measures for college students, including prolonged cognitive-behavioral interventions and recovery programs.

Introduction: Hyperprolactinemia is a common side effect associated with the use of anti-psychotic medications. This study aimed at exploring the rate of hyperprolactinemia induced by anti-psychotic drugs in adult patients admitted to Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) and Al Masarra hospital (AMH). Additionally, factors associated with higher prolactin levels in anti-psychotic patients were explored. Methods: Bespoke XL sheets on age, gender, region (place of stay), BMI, diagnosis, type of drugs, dose, symptoms, and prolactin levels were recorded from the existing health information system. All adult patients who were on anti-psychotic medication between January 2016 and June 2019 were included. Patients diagnosed with pre-existing endocrine conditions, pregnant females, and those with high prolactin levels at baseline were excluded. Results: A total of 1103 cases were included in this study of which 34.1% were from the SQUH vs 65.9% from AMH. The mean (SD) age of the study population was 35.6 (12.1), 56.7% were females and 58.7% cases were from Muscat. The common diagnoses were schizophrenia (59.3%) and bipolar affective disorder (14.7%). High prolactin levels existed in 68.3% of the cases from which 59.6% were treated with atypical anti-psychotic drugs. The proportion of cases with high prolactin levels in AMH was significantly different (higher) compared to cases in SQUH (76.9% vs 51.6%, P<0.001). The most common symptoms were painful breasts (55.2%), galactorrhoea (10.5%), amenorrhea (14.3%) and irregular periods (20.0%). Type of drugs used [haloperidol (typical) vs risperidone (atypical) anti-psychotics (P<0.001)], older vs younger age (P=0.03), and presence vs absence of symptoms (P<0.001) were predictors for the high prolactin levels. Conclusion: Similar to evidence from the west, results from this study showed a high rate of hyperprolactinemia in adults treated with anti-psychotics. More work is required to standardize anti-psychotic management and monitoring guidelines for psychotic patients across all psychiatric hospitals in Oman.