Emotional distress–specifically symptoms of anxiety and/or depression–in undergraduate medical student represent a major health issue for university life and for the entire society, as the onset of negative affectivity in young age is lowering quality of life of the affected individual and implicitly, the professional evolution.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of perceived stress in medical undergraduates and relationship between perceived stress and emotional distress.

The study comprised a randomised population of 356 students from 1st and 2nd year in Faculty of Medicine who signed the informed consent for the research. Mean age in the group was 20.04 ± 0.9 years old. Instruments used in the study were self-rated Zung Anxiety Scale and Zung Depression Scale and Perceived Stress Scale. Data were analysed with SPSS 16. Statistical significance was at P < 0.05.

Perceived stress of medium and high intensity was found in 62.5% of the students in the study. There is a significant effect of perceived stress on presence of emotional distress (F(3,352) = 36,431, P < 0.001). In the emotional distressed group, perceived stress in the period before the exams session is predicting emotional distress in the period of exams (academic stress) with OR = 1.145, P = 0.04, IC 95% = 1.006–1.303.

There is a high prevalence of perceived stress and perceived stress in the period before session of exams is a predictive factor for having emotional distress in session of exams. Therefore, we are signaling the necessity of implementation of stress management programs in medical undergraduates from the pre-clinical years.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.