This article aims to analyze the prevalence of, and the factors that trigger drug use among medical students. This is an integrative review of the scientific literature on the prevalence of drug use in medical students. We chose to focus on indexed scientific journals, querying Pubmed and the Virtual Health Library, using the SciELO, Medline and Lilacs databases. Three categories of the phenomenon are analyzed: prevalence of drug use among medical students (divided into categories of licit and illicit drugs); factors that promote drug use among medical students; and an analysis specifically in relation to Brazilian medical students. Evidence was found of a serious ongoing problem in medical schools; the major and constant prevalence of licit and illicit drug use among their students and intrinsic factors of the courses that may be trigger or serve to sustain such behavior. This problem deserves the attention of various university representatives to implement policies to control and reduce drug use in the university setting.
Drugs; Substance-Related Disorders; Medical Students; Prevalence; Medical Education