Abstract The consumption of alcohol and illicit substances has shown alarming levels among young university students, and its use may be associated with the coping strategy of academic burnout. This review aimed to synthesize the scientific evidence related to the consumption of alcohol and illicit substances associated with burnout syndrome in university students. Searches were carried out in: Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, PubMed, Web of Science, PsycNet and Scopus databases, with no year limitation and based on the PRISMA guideline. Among the 2.269 articles identified, 16 met the inclusion criteria. All studies evaluated students in the health area, 12 studies found an association between the variables, with alcohol and illicit substances consumption strongly related to burnout syndrome. It was concluded that there is an association between the studied variables, indicating that the presence of burnout syndrome in university students can result in the use of negative strategies as a coping measure.