ABSTRACT
BackgroundA widely held belief is that "Medical student syndrome” is frequently experienced by young medical students, that is, they experience the symptoms of the diseases they are studying or fear of having such illness. A hypothesis is that because medical students constantly learn about life-threatening conditions and diseases, they experience persistent fear and stress regarding having a severe medical condition, an anxiety-related illness called nosophobia.ResultsAlthough medical students scored an average of 14.14 on a scale measuring potential nosophobia a, the difference between their scores and those of non-medical students, who scored an average of 0.11, is significantly higher (p 0.001). According to the presented analysis, non-medical and medical students exhibit distinct levels of nosophobia. The analysis of responses to hypochondriacal behaviors revealed that students from non-medical faculties scored an average of 1.43 points. By contrast, the average score for medical students was 7.87, which is significantly higher than that of the non-medical students (p 0.001).ConclusionsMedical students are at higher risk for health anxiety and hypochondrial attitudes than non-medical students are.
ABSTRACT
Global surveys have highlighted rise in consumption of cannabinoids among residents of both developed and developing countries. Cannabinoids cause severe damage to the cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, and renal systems, and have been linked with several deaths. Despite these adverse health effects, the use of cannabinoids has rapidly increased. This work seeks to estimate the prevalence of cannabinoid abuse among Egyptian university students and explore the associated risk factors. A cross-sectional study was carried out over 3 months (1st of July-1st of October 2020) and included 2380 students. Participants were subjected to a pre-designed self-administered questionnaire that included demographic data, Addiction Severity Index, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Among the participating students, 4.9% of them reported cannabinoid abuse and 41% reported smoking cigarettes. The most used substances were hashish (96.5%), Strox (41.3%), Bhang (34.4%), voodoo (34.4%), and Tramadol (31.1%). Gender and social status were also significantly related to rates of substances abuse; most illicit drug users were males (93.1%), and the majority was of low (41.3%) or moderate (50.8%) socioeconomic status. The most significant risk factors associated with substance use were positive history of family conflict (OR=6.48; CI95%: 5.08-8.64, p<0.001), encouragement by peers (OR=2.95; CI95%: 1.73-5.05, p<0.001), male gender (OR=5.46; CI95%: 2.40-12.44, p=0.001), positive history of child abuse (OR=2.85; CI95%: 1.96-3.04, p=0.001), having a stay-at-home mother (OR= 1.56, CI95%: 1.19-2.04, p=0.001), living in an urban area (OR=2.22; CI95%: 1.53-5.0, p=0.002), and positive family history of substance use (OR=1.98; CI95%: 1.48-2.08, p=0.045). This study emphasizes the possible significant rise in substance use among university students. Awareness campaigns should target both students and student families.