Perfil do médico residente atendido no Grupo de Assistência Psicológica ao Aluno (GRAPAL) da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo

To define the profile of medical residents assisted by a mental health care service, aiming to contribute to the understanding of this group's needs.Observational study, retrospective cohort design. Data were collected from the medical records of a series of residents assisted by the group of psychological care for students of the Sao Paulo University School of Medicine , during the period 1998-2002; and from the institution's general register of residents. Proportions of residents assisted according to time, year of residency, gender , age, specialty, graduation school and distance from family home are described and differences between proportions of these variables categories are analyzed.The total of residents included was 2,131 with a follow-up time of 4,727 resident-years. Among them, computing first episode of care only, there were 104 residents assisted (4.9% residents assisted, or 2.2 residents assisted per 100 resident-years of follow-up). Their most frequent characteristics were: first year of residency (4.5%), age under 26 years (6.1%), female (6.9%), graduates from other schools (5.9%), and residents of cognitive specialties (6.7%). Psychiatric assistance in this sample shows an association with gender and factors related to a crisis of adaptation. The proportion of residents assisted has not increased during the period analyzed.