Study of Cannabis Use Among Moroccan Medical Student and Anxio-Depressive Comorbidity

Abstract

Introduction:Cannabis is the drug which use is the mostwidespread in the world, and particularly among young people. Medical students are not the exception. Exposure to a variety of factors, including stress, burnout, and relatively easy access to medications make them vulnerable to substance use. Objective: to study the prevalence of cannabis use among medical students and to assess its repercussions in terms of anxiety and depression. Methods: It is a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study of medical students of different medical schools in Morocco. Data collection was through an anonymous online self-administered survey. The measuring instruments used were surveys evaluating the main socio-demographic data, the CASTfor identifying problematic cannabis use, and the HAD scale which evaluates anxiety and depression in the group. The data is grouped and analysed by statistical software. Results: In this sample of 183 students (44.8% boys, 55.2% girls), the average age was 23.31 years. 21% had a psychiatric history. 32.2% consumed cannabis, half occasionally versus a third on a daily basis. Men had higher consumption rates than women with a significant difference. For the CAST results, 40% of cannabis users had a high risk of addiction. Anxiety score averaged 7.66 cannabis users and 5.52 for non-users, depression score averaged 5.88 users and 4.43 for non-users with significantly higher averages among users. Conclusion:Medicalstudentsseemparticularlyaffected by addictions. They must benefitfrom an assistance in order to improvetheirhealth, sothey can exercisetheirrole and be able to provide care to patients.