Background: Recreational drug toxicity is a common reason for
presentation to the Emergency Department. Knowledge of
recreational drug names is important to allow targeted
assessment of patients presenting with recreational drug
toxicity. Aims: To assess final year medical student knowledge
of proper and street names for recreational drugs. Design:
Questionnaire survey of final year medical students attending a
revision lecture. Methods: There were two questionnaires used in
this study. The first contained either proper names of
recreational drugs or names sounding similar to recreational
drugs or licensed pharmaceutical products; students were asked
to identify which of these were recreational drugs. The second
contained street names of recreational drugs and the students
were asked to identify which recreational drug the street name
referred to. Results: One hundred and thirty-five students
completed the questionnaire 1. The mean total score (±SD) of
correct answers was 7.15±2.26 (range 2–13) out of a maxim