India: THE DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE

We observed 26th june as the day against drugs. We must know drug addiction is associated with the development of psychiatric disorders

Drug use in recent few decades particularly in young productive and fertile age has shown an alarming increase and has penetrated all segments of society. It has far reaching health, social, economic and political repercussions making it mandatory for psychiatry, education, social work and law endorsement agencies to work in collaboration. There is high risk of development of psychiatric disorders in patients who have been using these drugs of addiction over prolonged period of time. Patients suffering from drug abuse and psychiatric disorders simultaneously have variable impact on general condition and functioning and in fact are very difficult to treat.

18-35 yrs Age group was mostly involved ( 70-80% )

Males were more effected than females

All segments of society were involved equally.

Single ( unmarried, divorced, widowers ) were affected more than the married population.

Illiterates as much involved as literates

Most important and alarming to note here was involvement of our

Student community, chemists, tourism/ transport trade,
professionals in addition to the unemployed were involved

Rural equally effected as urban

Availability is the root cause in addition to following precipitants:

Stress, prevailing disturbed conditions, Maladjustment

Unemployment

Peer group/ curiosity 50%

Failure in exams / family dispute

Drugs commonly used by these dually diagnosed patients

Cannabis( locally known as charas ) + some other addictive drug 40%

Opioids ( capsule/syrup/injection form ) 30%

Multiple substances used together

glues, polishes, paints, erasers etc

Alcohol to a lesser extent because it's not approved socially over here.

In addition Research work carried on the patients abusing drugs by Dr. Maajid, Registrar psychiatry, Govt medical college Srinagar, showed that more than half of these patients had a coexisting psychiatric disorders in the form of depression, Bipolar affective disorders, Anxiety disorders, Schizophrenia, Adjustment disorders, suicides etc. In addition this study revealed few of the following very important observations.

This research work was presented in an international conference on Bipolar Disorders organized by University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, Pennsylvania, USA from June 7-9th. This research was appreciated by researchers of international repute and has been accepted for publication in International journal of neurosciences and psychiatry.

Keeping in view these alarming observations, we need to upgrade our psychiatric facilities including establishment of state of art drug deaddiction centre in this part of world to cope up with increasing rush of these patients, rather than opting for short cuts like training the field doctors for short periods, which obviously instead of helping to diagnose and treat this ailing community will prove deleterious as making a psychiatrist needs 3 years of post graduate training. So these short term trainings will only add to misery of psychiatric patients as they will be at the helm of these pseudo psychiatrists ( 'neem hakims' ). In addition setting up general hospital psychiatric units as directed by Honorable Supreme court of India and as a part of national mental health Programme, psychiatric facilities ( under the supervision of psychiatric specialist ) should be started at least in District hospitals.

( Dr. Maajid is a noted Psychiatrist of the valley )

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n657/a01.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jul 2008
Source: Greater Kashmir (India)
Copyright: 2008 GreaterKashmir.com GK Communications Pvt. Ltd.
Contact: editor@greaterkashmir.com
Website: http://www.greaterkashmir.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3731
Author: Dr. Maajid