Stressed-out medical students may struggle to cope once they have qualified, according to a trainee doctor in Oxford, writes Victoria Owen.

Alan Wiles, the president of the city's medical school union, said students relied on each other for support.

The StudentBMJ has reported that psychological stress was widespread and warned that, if not addressed, the problem could lead to difficulties for doctors later in their careers. It has urged medical schools to introduce special "coping skills" lectures to aid students faced with long hours, rigorous exams and patient death, disease and trauma.

Mr Wiles, who is in his penultimate year at Oxford, said: "It is well-known that the medical students stick together we work and socialise with each other. It is hard for the loners and people who don't like socialising.

"In the old days we were very much left to sink or swim and that's certainly not the case nowadays." Mr Wiles said that, once qualified, junior house officers suffer were expected to work long and strenuous hours.

He said: "Once we put the white coats on people expect us to do things we may not be able to do.

"Although it's difficult we have to cope with it, otherwise we are never going to cope with the job when we qualify. You just have to enjoy it, really. It makes the horrid times bearable." In the article by Elspeth Guthrie, a senior lecturer in Psychiatry at Manchester University, The StudentBMJ said research showed depression and anxiety were common among trainee doctors.

It reported that many students feared going to lecturers with their problems, in case a question mark was put over their career.