Alcohol dependency on the rise - Herald

Alcohol dependency on the rise October 13, 2012 BY GERARD DE SOUZA gerard@herald-goa.com PANJIM: As the state celebrates world mental health week, psychiatrists and medical practitioners across the board have called for increased awareness on issues of alcoholism and the resulting mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency, even as the state continues to reel from high incidence of deaths due to alcohol related diseases. font-size: medium; text-align: justify; ">The call assumes significance with there being 15,137 cases of alcohol dependency being detected across the state over the last five years including 1536 deaths (one-tenth of alcohol dependents) with a greater number of cases being in Salcete, the Catholic heartland of the state. Dr Anil Rane a lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour who has done several studies on alcohol dependency in the state has said that there was a strong correlation between alcoholism and common mental disorders. Quoting studies, Dr Rane said that there was prevalence of ‘hazardous drinking’ in 21% of industrial workers and significantly that a greater number of hazardous drinkers were Catholic. “Also of alcohol should be limited to specific hours of the day such as from 7-11pm. This will ensure that people do not drink at work and also discourages people who limit to social drinking from developing a more abusive pattern,” Dr Rane said. Statistics made available by the Directorate of Health Services for cases over the last five years shows that every year around 5,000 new patients receive treatment for alcohol dependency and related diseases and out of which around 500 die each year because of liver cirrhosis or other related complications. Another private psychiatrist Dr Jose Pinto has blamed the lack of awareness for people taking to alcohol. “There is a misunderstanding that drinking alcohol is fine, but when they get into trouble they have no one to go to,” he said adding that alcohol dependents usually lose their jobs are inattentive at work causing them to get further frustrated and taking to alcohol. He hit out at the fact that despite the magnitude of the problem, Goa still does not have a single rehabilitation centre or even a detoxification centre for alcohol and substance abuse persons and that awareness programmes conducted by the Directorate of Health Services are negligible. http://www.heraldgoa.in/News/Local%20News/Alcohol-dependency-on-the-rise/65559.html