effect of stress management training on the mental health of medical students and interns training centers during the pandemic: an intervention study

Background: medical students, as a part of the first line of combating covid-19, have been exposed to harm caused by mental disorders.methods: sixteen training and internship students of birjand university of medical sciences from 2020-2021 were included in this intervention study. the intervention group completed the stress management training course in 6 sessions. mental health dimensions were collected with the scl90 questionnaire before and after intervention in both groups. spss 22 software and mann-whitney u-test, wilcoxon, chi-square, and fisher’s exact test were utilized for data analysis.results: the basic data showed no significant differences between groups (p > 0.05). after the intervention, the mean scores of physical complaint, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal relations, depression, anxiety, aggression, fear, paranoid and psychotic dimensions in the intervention group significantly decreased (p < 0.05). in controls, the obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety, and aggression dimensions significantly decreased (p < 0.05). however, in controls, there was no significant difference in the mean score of other dimensions before and after intervention (p > 0.05). before the intervention, the frequency distribution of various levels of sensitivity to interpersonal relationships in the two studied groups was the same (p > 0.05); after the intervention, these levels were significantly different between groups (p < 0.05). after intervention, the control group had a higher frequency distribution of individuals with degrees of depression (p <0.05).conclusions: the mental health of medical internship students during a crisis can be improved by stress management training, which reduces anxiety and depression. therefore, stress management courses are recommended in stressful situations.