NALTREXONE AS A TREATMENT FOR HEROIN DEPENDENCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DEPRESSION

BACKGROUND- our study was aimed to know does Naltrexone used in opioid-dependent patient has any relation with the onset of depression. METHOD- Naltrexone was given to 30 opioid-dependent patients who had undergone inpatient detoxification with no underlying psychiatric comorbidity at baseline. HAM-D was applied at 2,4,6 weeks post Naltrexone initiation. RESULTS: Our study showed that at 2 weeks, 60% of patients showed depressive symptoms out of which 37% met the criteria for mild depressive disorder and 23% met the criteria for moderate to severe depression. At 4 and 6 weeks, majority continued to be depressive while only 3% of the patients showed improvement in depressive features. CONCLUSION: From our study, we concluded that a positive correlation was found between Naltrexone and Depression in Opioid users

Blood Groups in the Kashmir Valley

Blood groups are genetically determined and exhibit polymorphism, where different population groups have significant difference in the frequency of each blood group. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of ABO and Rhesus D blood groups among the blood donors. A total number of 1306 blood donors attended the donor centre at SKIMS Medical College Hospital for blood donation in the year 2001-02. After each donation blood samples were collected in separate pilot tubes for the estimation of ABO and Rhesus D blood groups. The frequency of O. A, Band AB, Rhesus D positive and Rhesus D negative were calculated separately. The highest frequency among the ABO blood groups was of B (39.43%) and the lowest was of AB (8.11 %). Among the Rhesus D phenotypes. majority (93.33%) were Rhesus D positive. where as only 6.67% were Rhesus D negative. The prevalence of ABO/Rhesus D was calculated and the highest frequency was of B Rh-D positive (37.44%) followed by a Rh-D positive (28.9-+%). A Rh-D positive (19.21 %), AB Rh-D positive (7.73%), a Rh-D negative (2.90%), B Rh-D negative (1.99%), A Rh-D negative (1.37%) and AB Rh-D negative (0.38%). This study showed that most common group was B followed by a & A and 93.33% were positive for Rh-D phenotype.