The study authors have compared levels of stress among medical students using certain defined parameters. The study suggested that medical students appear to have a greater propensity towards academic stress, than their counterpart nonmedical students.1 Studies from different parts of the world, including from the Arabian Gulf are congruent with such a view.3,4 However, compared to other studies, the present finding of a 48.6% rate of academic stress appear to be bewilderingly high considering that, due to cultural patterning, there is a low tendency in such a population to admit to emotional distress.