Knowledge, approach and management of new drugs of abuse in the emergency departments in Medellin, Colombia

Conocimiento, abordaje y manejo de drogas emergentes en servicios de urgencias de medellín, colombia

Objective. To describe previous knowledge, approach and management of intoxications by new drugs of abuse in emergency services in a subgroup of future general doctors and Emergency Medicine specialists in order to justify the inclusion of this subject in the different study programs of such future profesionals. Materials and methods. Observational study in which a survey was answered by 89 last year medical students and emergency medicine residents of a private university in the city of Medellín in the year 2016. Questions about mechanisms of action, clinical syndromes, diagnosis and treatment of intoxications caused by the most frequent emerging drugs of abuse in the emergency department were made. Data was processed in a statistical package and analized with frequency measurements. Results. Global knowledge about these new drugs was categorized as low, both in the last year medical students and emergency medicine residents groups. As for the approach questions, an intermediate level was found in the resident’s group, whereas the last year medical student’s group got a low level of knowledge. The same results were found in the management questions for each group. Conclussion. This study shows the need to include this subject as part of the educational programs of undergraduate studies and postgraduate studies in emergency medicine in the city.