Experts call for introduction of oral substitution therapy

Islamabad
The Institute of Psychiatry at Benazir Bhutto Hospital and WHO Collaborating Centre on Mental Health in collaboration with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is organising a five-day workshop titled ‘National Workshop on Treatment Training of Trainers’ here for treatment of patients of substance abuse.
The workshop comprising mental health professionals from across the country started on July 27. Head of Institute of Psychiatry Professor Fareed A. Minhas, who is leading the initiative, began the proceedings on the first day, setting the stage by sharing with the participants the importance of the topic and the role of health care professionals to curtail the ever growing menace created by drug abuse.
He stressed upon the role of such workshops to provide state of the art training to participants so they can provide their patients the best care in tune with the latest developments in the field of psychiatry. He also highlighted the challenges faced by the Institute in piloting the research for Oral Substitution Therapy and lamented the ignorance of key players in different departments for creating hurdles in the path of science and health care.
According to him, the provision of OST is need of the time as majority of patients of substance abuse responds well to the protocol.
During the workshop, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry from Wah Medical College, Wah Cantonment Dr. Muhammad Faheem Khan introduced the participants to the foundational principles of addiction. He shared with them the nature of alcohol and benzodiazepine addiction; two main addictive substances whose impact is usually underplayed in our society.
He highlighted the main medical issues caused and facilitated the understanding of the participants by means of a case study. He further facilitated a session on the same day on psychstimulants, volatile substances, and cannabis.
The afternoon sessions on the first day of workshop were facilitated by Senior Registrar at Institute of Psychiatry, BBH Dr. Mahmood Ali Khan. He instructed the participants on the various benefits and utilities of Oral Substitution Therapy. He gave the basic characteristics, pharmacodynamics and recommended usage protocols for Methadone and Buprinorphine.
Clinical Psychologists Sameera Majeed and Sadia Aziz took the driving seats for the second and third day of the workshop. They introduced the audience to the psychological dimensions of helping patients of drug abuse. By means of interactive sessions and informative slides they guided the participants through the tenets of Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, particularly its role in relapse prevention, and also taught them how best to involve the families of the patients. They augmented their sessions with a role play which further streamlined the concepts for the participants.
The third day was dedicated to learning the usage of various psychometric tools.
The fourth day of the workshop, (on Thursday) was graced by Assistant Professors of Psychiatry from the Institute of Psychiatry Dr. Asad Tamizuddin and Dr. Ayesha Minhas. Dr. Asad engaged the audience in interactive sessions bringing his zeal and presentation skills to full effect highlighting important factors so as to improve patient care, access and retention. He further facilitated the participants in discussing program evaluation methods. His last session touched upon the important aspects of reducing the harm of drug use and dependence and HIV risk reduction.
Dr. Ayesha conducted fruitful sessions covering the sensitive issues and challenges of drug abuse in women and children.