Substance abuse amongst the medical graduate students in a developing country

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Substance abuse is found worldwide including among students. We carried out this study to estimate the prevalence of substance abuse among medical student studying in a medical college in north India. METHODS: Using a validated questionnaire a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 230 undergraduate and postgraduate medical students in a private medical college. RESULTS: The prevalence of substance abuse was 20.43 per cent (47/230) among medical students. An increase in substance abuse was observed in the latter years of medical education. A total of 43 of 47 (91.7%) students using these substances were aware of the ill effects. The most common reasons for substance use were relief from psychological stress (34/47, 72.4%) and occasional celebration (34/47, 72.4%). Of the 47 substance users, 28 (59.6%) made past attempts to quit the substance abuse. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one-fifth of medical students abuse at least one substance despite knowing the ill effects with the main predisposing factor being the psychological stress.