Association between nonprescription use of nootropics and sleep quality in medical students

• Autor(a) principal: Alves de Azevedo, Dênia
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Turci , Maria Aparecida, Castelo Branco Rocha Silva, Guilherme, Cesar Piva, Hugo, Túlio Silveira Sousa, Gustavo, Sampaio Moura, Alexandre
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Scientia Medica (Porto Alegre. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/scientiamedica/article/view/43759
• topic: Students, Medical; Nootropic Agents; Sleep; Education, Medical; Estudantes de medicina; Nootrópicos; Sono; Educação médica

Aims: analysing the quality of sleep of the medical students at a private university and its association with the nonprescription use of nootropics (methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine and modafinil).Methods: the sleep quality was analyzed by using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. A sociodemographic questionnaire was considered to identify the psychosocial characteristics of the participants and the use of nootropics. Results were represented as mean and standard deviation (for quantitative variables) or frequency (for qualitative variables), and associations were analyzed using the chi-square test. Results: 362 students answered the questionnaire. The medium levels of global PSQI in students with recent unprescribed use of nootropics was like that observed for students who had never used nootropics (7.76 vs. 7.73; p=0.96). The PSQI analysis by specific domain also showed no statistically significant difference for any domain. It was observed that 23.6% of women and 33,9% of men had good sleep quality, with this difference being statistically significant (p=0.04). The use of six doses or more of alcoholic beverages was related to higher levels of PSQI (7.47 vs. 8.19; p=0.047). Students with poor sleep quality had less satisfaction with their professional choice (OR = 1.84; 95% CI= 1.09 - 3.11), lower perception of skills acquisition (OR= 1.96; 95%CI = 1.16 - 3.31) and a higher proportion of thoughts related to dropping out of the course (OR = 0.46; 95%CI = 0.27 - 0.77). Recent and non-prescription use of nootropics was associated with marijuana use and the desire to drop out of the course. Conclusions: sleep quality was worse in females and in those with higher alcohol intake, and was associated with lower satisfaction with professional choice and desire to drop out of the course. No association was found between non-prescription use of nootropics and sleep quality in medical students.