A survey of medical students' attitudes and practices towards narcotics and psychotropic drugs

Abstract

Substance abuse is one of the major behavioral problems in today's human society. One of the medical uses of drugs is to relieve the pain and suffering of patients. Today, due to the widespread use of narcotics and psychotropic drugs in the control and treatment of the disease and also its use among medical students, the present study aimed to determine the attitude and practice of medical students towards the use of narcotics and psychotropic drugs. The present study was a cross-sectional analytical study that was performed on 102 medical interns of Guilan University of Medical Sciences who were selected by available methods. To collect information, a researcher-made questionnaire was used which has three sections including a checklist of demographic information, attitude assessment questionnaire of medical students and performance assessment questionnaire. The mean age of the interns was 23.8±0.21 years. In the analysis of the results, it was found that there is a significant relationship between marital status and residence status with performance score. Based on the results of the present study, the level of students' knowledge about narcotics and psychotropic drugs among them is not at the desired level. Therefore, due to the lack of knowledge of medical students about the dangerous side effects of these drugs, education on the nature, symptoms, and side effects of psychotropic substances is recommended.