Physical and Mental Health Status of Women whose Spouses Inject Drugs – A Cross-Sectional, Multisite Study

Substance use disorder impacts the lives of significant others, more especially the wives of individuals using substances. However, the physical and mental health issues among wives of people who inject drugs(PWID) are less studied. The current cross?sectional, multisite study assessed the physical and mental health of wives of 433 PWID across six sites in Delhi. The mean age of the participants was 32.7 years (standard deviation: 9.7). More than 50% of the participants reported menstrual problems, most commonly dysmenorrhea. Around 55.9% had adverse pregnancy outcomes(abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth). Around one out of four participants reported at least one specific sexually transmitted infection symptom. Around 11% were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 35% with a major medical illness in their lifetime. More than 90% of the participants had depressive and anxiety symptoms. The study showed that there is a huge burden of physical and mental health issues among the wives of PWID.

Misuse of prescription opioids in chronic non-cancer pain.

Somatization disorder is a common cause of chronic non-cancer pain. The use of opioids in such conditions carries a risk of their potential abuse. Lax regulations coupled with sub-optimal medical training in India lead to the rampant use of prescription opioids. We present a case of somatization disorder along with injection pentazocine dependence in a woman, in whom use of pentazocine was initiated by a registered medical practitioner for somatoform pain management, followed by self-injection because of its easy availability in local pharmacy shops. We highlight the need for education of medical practitioners on appropriate use of pharmaceutical opioids, need for regulation of local pharmacy shops, and development of guidelines for use of opioids in chronic non-cancer pain. Natl Med J India 2015;28:284–5

Biochemical measures in the diagnosis of alcohol dependence using discriminant analysis.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol dependence often cannot be diagnosed based on self-report alone. Various biochemical and haematological parameters have been used to screen alcohol use disorders. AIM: To develop discriminant equations based on lipid and liver measures independently for identifying alcohol dependent and non-dependent subjects. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Case control study in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS AND MATERIALS: One hundred subjects fulfilling the criteria of alcohol dependence and seventy healthy controls were included. The socio-demographic details, caloric intake, height, weight and blood pressure were recorded. Samples were analysed for various lipid measures as well as liver function. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Diagnostic values such as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PV+), negative predictive value (PV-) and discriminant analysis. RESULTS: Using discriminant analysis, two equations were constructed based on liver and lipid measures independently. 84.7% of the subjects on the basis of total cholesterol (TC), apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and low density lipoprotein/high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL/HDL-c and 89.1% on the basis of aspartate amino transferase (AST) and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) were correctly classified into their respective groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the ability of TC, ApoB and LDL/HDL-c (among lipid measures) and AST and GGT (among liver measures) in discriminating alcohol dependents from non-dependent subjects.