Substance abuse among medical students in a medical college at northern kerala

Background: Substance abuse has a broader perspective than an individual, emphasizing the role of society and culture. And the relevance of substance abuse in medical students is of more growing concern. Objectives: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice substance abuse among medical students. Materials and Methods: A Cross Sectional study was done among 200 medical students with predesigned questionnaire. Respondents were graded in to good knowledge and attitude, if they responded to at least 50% of the questions correctly and poor knowledge and attitude if less than 50% of the medical students fail to answer. Practice was reported good among students, if more than 80% of them were not consuming the substances and bad if about 30% were involved in substance usage. Results: Majority of students have adequate knowledge and positive attitude towards substance abuse. 4.5% students are males who were found to be smokers. None of them use alcohol or any form of addictive drugs. Conclusion: Since few of the students are smokers adequate counseling sessions have to be arranged .Some do not have adequate knowledge regarding substance abuse, so more training sessions need to be incorporated into medical curriculum.