This page was translated automatically from Turkish. Read the original

This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO233

An examination of attitudes toward and awareness of substances and the prevalence of substance use among medical interns and residents

STUDYING THE ATTITUDE AND AWARENESS OF INTERNS AND RESIDENTS TOWARDS SUBSTANCES, AND THE FREQUENCY OF USE AMONG THEM

Despite adequate knowledge and negative attitudes toward substance use among medical interns and residents, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and sedative use is relatively common.

The aim was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and the prevalence of substance use among medical interns and residents, including opioids and amphetamine-type stimulants. In a descriptive cross-sectional study, anonymous data were collected between March 2021 and March 2022 from 240 medical interns and residents selected through convenience sampling from hospitals affiliated with Iran University of Medical Sciences; a demographic form, the Substance-Related Knowledge and Attitude Assessment Questionnaire, and WHO-ASSIST were used. The mean age of participants was 27.3 years; 51.7% were women, 67.5% were single, and 80% were interns. Lifetime use prevalence was 124 (51.67%) for tobacco products, 81 (33.75%) for alcoholic beverages, 69 (28.75%) for cannabis, 59 (24.58%) for sedatives, 28 (11.67%) for stimulants, 24 (10.00%) for opioids, 9 (3.75%) for cocaine, and 3 (1.25%) for inhalants; prevalence over the past 3 months was 109 (45.42%), 68 (28.33%), 44 (18.33%), 34 (14.17%), 13 (5.42%), 15 (6.25%), 0 (0.00%), and 3 (1.25%), respectively. Participants with more negative attitudes toward substances were less likely to use opioids (OR = 1.325; 95% CI 1.238 to 1.412); opioid use was also lower among those with greater knowledge of substance abuse (OR = 1.149; 95% CI 1.087 to 1.214), and stimulant use decreased with increasing age. No statistically significant differences in substance use were found by sex or marital status; the abstract reported that 91.3% of participants correctly answered more than 80% of the awareness questions, while 98.3% correctly answered more than 80% of the attitude questions. The authors emphasized that the relatively high prevalence of substance use despite adequate knowledge and negative attitudes may be related to factors such as workload, sleep deprivation, peer influence, psychological pressure, and coping skills, and that assessing mental health and occupational stress in this group is important.

All WCP 2026 summaries