Grau de conhecimento e consumo de psicofármacos dos alunos da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Coimbra

introduction: the purpose of this study was to analyse the degree of knowledge and use of psychotropic drugs among students of the college of health technology of coimbra (estesc). the study lasted nine months and involved 417 estesc students. material and methods: the data collection, conducted between february and march 2009, consisted of a self-administered questionnaire. results: it was found that 374 (89.7%) of the students had a positive knowledge about psychotropic drugs, of which 245 (65.5%) had sufficient knowledge and 129 (34.5%) a good knowledge. it was found that the good level of knowledge had the largest portion of individuals belonging to the pharmacy course (68.3%) and those who had a high self-rating of knowledge (54.9%). in fact, 53 students (12.7%) had taken psychotropic drugs in the previous 6 months. discussion: the overall prevalence was higher in females (14.2%) in the course of pharmacy (25.0%) and those presenting a good level of knowledge (22.5%). the class of psychotropic drugs most commonly used was anxiolytics, with 23 registered drugs (47.9%). the prevalence of psychotropic drugs utilization can be considered high, taking into account the age of the individuals included in this study and their state of health.