BackgroundThe mental health of medical students is notoriously poor, and with the additional challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has never been greater concern for the wellbeing of the current cohort. This cross-sectional study investigates the impact of coping strategies used by Australian medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health improvement, including exercise, using social media, and connecting with family and friends. MethodsAn anonymous questionnaire was shared with medical students from all years via Facebook and General Practice Students Networks’ communications during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of a variety of lockdown coping strategies utilised by participants was assessed using SPSS.ResultsThere were 321 participants in this study, 69.6% of whom were females, 54.9% in their pre-clinical years, and 70.5% between the ages of 18-24. The results showed that nearly 80% of participants credited their mental health improvement to peri-lockdown strategies. The logistic regression analysis demonstrated that reading (non-medical books) and spending more time with family were the most notable peri-lockdown strategies associated with mental health improvement. Interestingly, some coping strategies made some participants more “demotivated” and were in fact more “addictive” which “took away from study time”, especially video games, TV series and movies. ConclusionIn quantitatively and qualitatively illustrating the impact of peri-lockdown coping strategies, we hope that medical faculties and mental health support networks within medicine may more appropriately tailor support and resources for students, not only in this time of hardship, but also for the many challenges ahead of all medical students. More specifically, medical faculty leads could explore the possible implementation of small reminders in the course curriculum, i.e. at the end of lecture and study material, to remind students to take breaks from studying, through reading and/or spending more time with family.