Detection of drugs abuse among Medicine students in a private university

Drug abuse among universitarians is an increasing issue. Rates of alcohol and illegal drugs abuse can be higher in the universitarian population than in the general one. OBJECTIVE: This research aims to detect what drugs are used by Medicine students of Positivo University (Universidade Positivo) and to correlate associated caracteristics. METHOD: It was applied a virtual adaptation of the ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test) questionnaire to all (209) Medicine students during 106 days in 2006. RESULTS: Eighty-eight (42 percent) of the students took part in it. Most were single (88 percent) between 17 and 25 years old (85 percent). Seventy-eight percent consumed alcohol at least once; the use of tobacco was of 38,64 percent; cannabis got 26,14 percent of use, inhalants were used for 21,59 percent and stimulants for 11,36 percent. DISCUSSION: The results found match studies from other universities and also showed a high number of drug users, especially for alcohol. It's a worrying situation and points out the importance of having proper education in preventing drug addiction. CONCLUSIONS: The University enviroment clearly influenciates drug abuse and new prevention strategies are needed.