Abstract

Depression is a major public health threat that can affect anyone including law students. Law professionals are an understudied population that is integral to society. Limited research indicates lawyers experience poor mental health, decreased wellbeing, and suicidality. Aims and Objectives: We aimed to investigate prevalence of depression levels among law students of a private law college of Durgapur, West Bengal, India. Materials and Methods: This analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted among 51 law students in the Durgapur Law College, Durgapur, West Bengal, India from August 2021 to September 2022 after getting approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee. Template was generated in MS excel sheet and analysis was done on SPSS. Results: The present study revealed that 45.10% of the law students had some degree of depression. In the study 18 (35.29) law students belong to 17-19 years of age, 16 (31.37%) belong to age group of 20-22 years and 17 (33.33%) belong to age group of 23-25 years and 21 (41.18%) law students were male and 30 (58.82%) were female. After applying Beck Depression Inventory method 28 (54.90%) law students were suffering from normal depression. Borderline depression was present in 10 (19.61%) of law students, 3 (5.88%) law students were suffering from mild depression. Moderate depression was present in 7 (13.73%) law students and 3 (5.88%) law students were suffering from severe depression. Conclusion: Our study showed that the prevalence of depressive symptoms was very high among law students. If detected early, students with depressive symptoms may be managed successfully by behavioral therapy, emotional support and interpersonal psychotherapy

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