The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

HEALTH

Don’t ignore symptoms of drug abuse

Ranjit Singh, a 17-year-old, student of plus II was showing some changes in his behaviour. He was losing interest in studies and had started sleeping less at night and remained slow and sleepy during the day. His class test grades were also falling. He started spending more time in toilet and his mother noticed that after he used the toilet a strange smell used to come from there. One day his mother noticed some black soot on the wall near the almirah. She could trace a lighter, brown powder and silver foil paper on the almirah top. She was shocked to learn that her son had been using brown sugar called smack.

Swaran, a student of plus I, was an introvert and mostly remained confined in his home. His parents noticed that he has started staying away from home without any valid reason. A couple of times, his mother found blood stains on bedsheets and his clothes.

He also started getting violent without any provocation. One day she noticed multiple injection marks on his upper arms. When confronted, he disclosed that he has been taking morphine injections for more than six months..

The number of such young children getting hooked to hard drugs is on the rise. More and more children are being brought to the psychiatrists and de-addiction clinics for treatment. Most of the times, parents are caught completely unawares. They hardly suspect that their children are using hard drugs. Even if some one tries to warn them or inform them in this regard they tend to ignore it. Drug is last thing that comes to their mind.

For the awareness of parents and teachers the following is a brief list of signs and symptoms which can raise suspicion of drug abuse:-

Symptoms of drug abuse

Sleep disturbances; loss of appetite or abnormal food craving; stealing of money, gold items and other valuables from the house; irritability; anger outbursts; loss of interest in studies; loss of weight; loss of physical charm and facial glow; restlessness; severe mood fluctuations; tendency for violence; recurrent infections; tremors and loss of interest in day to day activities

Since drug addiction is showing a phenomenal rise in the urban and rural Punjab, it becomes quite important that parents and teachers should be alert to the symptoms related to the use of addictive drugs. One has to catch them at the earliest possible stage.

As time passes, it becomes difficult to get rid of the habit. Any change in behaviour should be kept under suspicion. One must keep a close watch on the kind of company the children keep or the new visitors coming to meet the children. In case of slightest doubt one should always confront the child. Most of the parents feel shy of confronting the child. It is commonly observed that when mothers learn about the drug habits of their children, they do not disclose it to their husbands or to other family members.

The delays the medical intervention unnecessarily. If children are taking money for private tuition, parents should ensure that money is being deposited with the teachers or with the coaching institutes. I have commonly observed that addict children take money from the home, but never pay the tuition fee. In fact many among them only feign that they are going for tuition.

Health education has become quite important for the children. Drug addiction has been included in the plus II syllabus. There is a need for more seminars and talks in the schools to make students, teachers and parents aware about this.

Dr Rajeev Gupta

Tips on brushing off ailments
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 11
“Everyone can have a million-dollar smile these days. All women participating in beauty contests have their teeth restructured to flash a winsome smile. If a tooth is broken in an accident, do not throw it. Put it in milk and take it within an hour to the dentist, he can fix it. Dental implants are very popular as they make use of natural teeth”. These were some of the tips Dr Vikas Jindal gave to teachers of Kundan Vidya Mandir here today.

The Ludhiana chapter of the Indian Dental Association (IDA), in collaboration with the school, organised a dental health awareness and education programme at the school auditorium. Dewan Jagdish Chander, a former MLA, inaugurated the programme. It included teachers’ training in which Dr Jindal, joint secretary, IDA, Punjab, briefed the teachers about dental ailments and their prevention and treatment. The thrust of the lecture was on carelessness on the part of the patients.

Dr Jindal emphasised that one should take dental ailments seriously as delay in treatment could lead to serious problems as cancer of the oral cavity, odema of the face leading on to septicemia and even death. He cited certain examples where patients had landed into such of problems in the recent past. The slide show along with his talk gave a clear picture what dental decay could do.

Dr Jindal emphasised the need to improve the eating habits of children. He advocated the use of fibrous and hard foods instead of soft and jaggery food. He stressed the need to brush teeth at least twice everyday as dental plaque, accumulated on the teeth an hour after brushing teeth. He advised the teachers to brush their teeth once after breakfast and once after dinner. The correct way of brushing was also important. He said Indians did not like flossing their teeth, but it removed the obstructions between the teeth.

He came down heavily on popular soft drinks. He told the gathering that long-term contact of teeth with these products could cause weakening of enamel and provide an open invitation to bacteria to cause dental caries and associated diseases. He talked in length about the general hygiene measures which ought to be adopted by people in general. Certain myths about dentistry, like cleaning of teeth loosened them, were also cleared by him.

He said the cause of dental ailments was ignorance, carelessness and fear of visit to the dentist. He said regular dental check-up could prevent a number of dental ailments which otherwise became untreatable because of delay. A majority of ailments, according to him, were painless to start with.

In the question-answer session, he said the cause of bad breath could be infected gums, stomach disorders or bad teeth. Sometimes a long gap between two meals also caused bad breath as the acids produced in the stomach emitted foul smell. Treatment should be taken to stop bad breath after ascertaining its cause.

Other features of this programme were dental check-up, lectures for students and free gifts for students. Dr Kanika Jindal, who conducted the dental check-up of around, 4000 students of the school, was felicitated.

Ms Neena Khanna, Principal of the school, appreciated the efforts of the IDA in educating the teachers and the students about dental diseases. Dr T.P. Singh, president, IDA, Ludhiana branch, briefed the audience about the details of the programme.

CMC’s stoma therapy unit a boon for people
Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, September 11
Most of the patients who undergo surgical treatment (ulcerative colitis, chronic inflammatory diseases, rectal cancer, complex gynaecological procedures resulting in injury to colon, uterine cancer) end up getting a permanent or temporary stoma (bag) on the abdominal wall for passing stools for the rest of their lives. Though the patients get rid of the disease but bearing an abdominal bag usually results in a lifelong psycho-social trauma for the patient basically due to lack of proper counselling and stoma management training.

Established in the year 1997 the stoma therapy unit at CMC is the only one in this region providing stoma management facilities.

Dr Rajiv Kapoor, Deputy Medical Superintendent, CMCH, in a press statement today said that the unit was operational since the last 5 years and had treated more than 500 patients. “The stoma unit takes care of the patients with temporary and permanent stoma. This unit is an integral part of the super speciality ‘colorectal surgical services’ being offered by the Surgery Department, CMC.

The unit has been catering to patients from all over Punjab and also neighbouring states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan.

The multidimensional therapy is focussed on helping the patient to cope with the physical, psychological and professional aspects of living with a stoma. These patients are provided with customer made appliances and are trained in self management of routine activities, leasing towards complete rehabilitation”, said Dr Kapoor

Mr Parveen G. Masih (Endostomy therapist who’s looking after the unit since its inception) maintained that there were various kinds of stomas that were managed by different techniques. The first level of stoma management was training the patient how to defecate through stoma avoiding any smell or leakage. “Another problem in these cases is that the abdominal skin gets excoriate due to contact with fecal discharge, as it is an unnatural opening of abdomen. Medication, ointments are prescribed to the patient for skin healing. The long-term stoma management involves training the patient how to clean their intestines through stoma so that they need not carry on the bag for more than 12 hours.

It is best advised to avoid spicy food and heavy diet and take special care of persona hygiene.

The most important aspect of this therapy is effective counselling of the patient to accept this condition and adapt their lifestyle accordingly”, said Mr Masih

Dr Rajiv Kapoor also said that the hospital was planning to conduct a stoma management training workshop in October-November for nurses from remote areas of the district.

Lakhvinder, Sukhpreet win badminton title
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, September 11
Lakhvinder Singh prevailed over Sunil Sekhri 15-7, 15-11, while Sukhpreet Kaur survived anxious moments before emerging winner against Ashwinder Kaur 7-11, 11-3, 11-7 to bag the men’s and women’s sections, respectively, in the Wings Webtech Ludhiana District Badminton Championship which concluded at the Shastri Hall near Guru Nanak Stadium here on Tuesday.

Earlier, in the semifinals Sunil Sekhri quelled a strong challange from Punjab’s Masih, whom he pipped 15-12, 15-9 and Lakhvinder Singh was extended to three sets by Ramnik Sharma whom he overpowered 15-9, 12-15, 15-3.

In the women’s section, Ashwinder Kaur beat Prerna Sood 11-6, 11-6, while Sukhpreet Kaur had tough time against Mandeep Mangat 11-6, 7-11, 11-7.

In the women’s doubles final, the duo of Mandeep and Sukhpreet Kaur of Khalsa College for Women defeated Ashwinder Kaur and Balreet Kaur 7-11, 11-7 and 11-2.

In the boy’s doubles (u-19) final, the pair of Ramnik Sharma and Gurbax Singh outplayed Punjab Masih and Ashutosh 15-10 and 15-3 to lift the title. In the girls’ singles (U-19) section, Mandeep Mangat faced little resistence from Prerna Sood of the Government College for Women 11-6, 11-5 to bag the trophy.

In the boys’ singles (u-10) final, Pranav Chopra registered an easy victory over Jogeet Singh 15-2, 15-3 and later, he paired with Antarpreet to outclass Jogeet and Surya Ramdev 15-1, 15-2 to win the double’s title.

In the girls singles (u-10) final, Steffi faced no challenge from her rival Shubham whom she drubbed in straight sets 11-2 and 11-0 to clinch the title.