title: Substance abuse amongst the medical graduate students in a developing country.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  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.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Subharti Dental College, Meerut, India; Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gowri
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choudhary
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sudarasanan
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Khosla
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013337:Students, Medical; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities