Measures to prevent drug addiction

Editor -I agree strongly with Deborah Cohen.¹ Drug misuse is a commonly encountered and underemphasised issue in medical school. Drug misuse should be looked at as a clinical manifestation of an underlying disease. The cause of drug misuse is not only what meets the eye or what is read in text books but is made up of psychological and social interactions that affect the each patient.

Recent research on social anxiety disorder showed that there is a strong predisposition in individuals with social anxiety disorders to resort to drug misuse. I therefore believe that questionnaire based screening programmes, which prompt treatment of social anxiety disorder, will prevent many cases of drug misuse.

The prevalence of parentally transmitted diseases, like hepatitis C, which are high in intravenous drug users, can be reduced by adopting new initiatives that are described in the US National Institutes of Health's consensus statement.² Counselling intravenous drug users on abstaining from risky behaviour and referring them to rehabilitation programmes and methadone treatment are all well known approaches to dealing with drug users. However, harm reduction methods for continuing drug users, including ensuring access to sterile syringes and advocating good hygiene, are also important.

Eradicating drug misuse anytime soon may seem a far fetched idea but keeping the numbers in check by introducing these small changes will surely go a long way in stemming the looming epidemic.

1. Cohen D. Frank about drugs. studentBMJ 2004;12:89.(March.)
2. National Institutes of Health. Management of hepatitis C: final statement. Bethesda: NIH, 2002.http://consensus.nih.gov/cons/116/091202116cdc_statement.htm(accessed 16 Mar 2004).