Consumption of licit psychostimulants in doctoral students in Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Academic and hospital activities lead medical students to the consumption of commonly used psychostimulant substances in order to increase their motor and cognitive activity, but the legal nature of these products does not exclude them from having adverse effects if consumed in inappropriate quantities. Objective: To know the consumption of licit psychostimulant substances in common use in students of the clinical area of ​​Doctorate in Medicine.
Method: Study with a quantitative approach, deductive method, descriptive and cross-sectional type in students of the clinical area of ​​Doctorate in Medicine of the University of El Salvador 2017, population of 374 students and sample of 190, random and proportional.
Results: Almost 70% reported making use of psychostimulants, of them 90% reported coffee as the main psychostimulant consumed and one in four interviewees consume tobacco or energy drinks. The licit psychostimulant with the highest inappropriate consumption is tobacco with 23.3%.
Conclusions: The licit psychostimulants of common use used by the students of Doctorate in Medicine in clinical area are: coffee, tobacco, energy drinks and cola drinks. The general consumption of psychostimulants in medical students is within the consumption parameters at the Latin American level. The products that presented inappropriate consumption were coffee and tobacco. The number of medical students dependent on tobacco increases as they advance in the clinical area, despite this, the percentage of UEES medical students who smoke is almost half compared to the prevalence of smoking in Latin American youth.