The Short Form of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS-SF; Raes et al. 2011) is composed of 12 items that evaluate the same six dimensions (Self-Kindness/SK, Self-Judgement/SJ, Common Humanity/CH, Isolation, Mindfulness/M, Over-Identification/OI) as the long scale (26 items). The Portuguese version of the SCS-SF (Castilho et al. 2015) was validated in a vast sample from clinical and general populations, the latter being composed of students, other than from medicine courses.

To analyze the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the SCS-SF in a sample of Medicine/Dentistry students.

Participants were 666 Portuguese medicine (82.6%) and dentistry (17.4%) students (81.8% girls); they answered an online survey including the SCS and other validated questionnaires from the OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills/SSES: Stress resistance, Emotional control, Optimism and Persistence.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the model composed of six factors, two second order factors (positive and negative) and one third order factor (total) presented good fit indexes (χ2/df=3.013; RMSEA=.0066, p<.001; CFI=.970; TLI=.948, GFI=.947). The Cronbach’s alfas were .892, .869 and .877 respectively for the total, self-compassion and self-criticism dimension. Pearson correlations of the SCS-SF total score, self-compassion and self-criticism dimensional scores were moderate to high with the SSES measures, from .272/-.236/.247 with Persistence to .709/-.634/.615 with Optimism.

Although reduced to less than half than the original SCS, the SCS–SF is a valid and useful alternative to measure general self-compassion and their positive and negative components in an ongoing longitudinal research with medicine/dentistry students.

No significant relationships.

Among medical students the rate of depression varies between 5-32% and it is known that the suicide rate is higher than in the general population.

Clear and current data are needed to design studies for the diagnosis and treatment of students and residents of Medicine with psychological and psychiatric disorders in order to reduce rates of suicidal behavior in this population group.

A systematic search for articles on the UpToDate, PubMed and Mendeley platforms has been conducted with the keywords “suicide”, “suicidal behavior”, “suicidal ideation”, “medicalschool” and “medical students”. We found 435 items from which a total of 42 items were selected.

The prevalence of depression is 27.2%, of which only 15.7% of them are under treatment. Burnout, has a high prevalence of 45-50%. The prevalence of suicidal ideation in the last year is 11.1%. The most commonly used method is medication overdose. Suicidal behavior is greater among students who choose to choose Psychiatry or Family and Community Medicine as a specialty.

The rate of suicidal ideation among medical students is 11.1%. Nearly one out of every three medical students suffers from depression in some degree, and only one in five is treated. The similar prevalence of burnout at all levels supposes poor management of stress from the faculty. Medical schools should reduce the associated stigma and should encourage depressed students to seek treatment.