An Anthropo-Medical Approch on Stress Among Teenagers and Young People in Romania

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to determine of multi-inter-disciplinary perspective, the extent to which young people perceive mental stress, the main factors of stress and its consequences on the human body, highlighting the electrographic characteristics of the mental stress condition.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014, in Bucharest, during the Educational project of partnership no 812/2013, involving 407 subjects (156 boys, 251 girls), aged 14-21 years. The participants in the study were 198 adolescents- pupils at college (aged 14-18 years) and 209 young people-students in the first year at Faculty of Medicine (aged 18-21 years). The subjects were medically and anthropometrically examined and there were created ordinal, nominal and binar questionnaries, including 67 items, to complete the data. During the study we have used six items wich refer to mental stress, highlighting the electrophysiological and biophysical features of certain mentally stressed teenagers and young people. The statistical analysis (Pearson Chi-Square test) was performed with the help of SPSS version 13.

Results: Most of the participants of both sexes believe that young people are very much exposed to psychological stress (Chi-Square=2.608, p=0.271). Most of the young participants consider that the main consequences of stress are illnesses, especially mental ones, followed by digestive and cardiovascular conditions (Pearson Chi-Square=16.224, p=0.023). A large number of the participant girls consider themselves to be stressed, while most of the boys think they are not stressed (Pearson Chi-Square=20.308, p= 0.000). Most of the boys and girls believe that drug therapy is less effective in combating psychological stress (Pearson Chi-Square=0.711, p=0.871), relaxation being considered the most effective remedy. The electrographic image under stress conditions presents rare and sporadic electric discharges (streamers), which are asymmetrically distributed on left and right sides and which are common for the individuals with certain pathological conditions. After a 15 minutes exposure to relaxing music, strong electrical discharges are visible, which are symmetrically distributed on left and right sides and which are common for the psycho-emotional and somatic balance.

Conclusion: Stress is a real problem found in most countries, which can affect people, causing many diseases and suffering. It is important that the stress factors are known, along with the remedies of such conditions, because stress, even if it is not considered a disease, it can hugely affect people in time, causing even death. The response to stress is influenced by both individual characteristics (personality traits, tolerance, adaptability or vulnerability), as well as external factors.