Does Online Newsmedia Portrayal of Substance Use and Persons with Substance Misuse Endorse Stigma? A Qualitative Study from India.

Media provides and shapes public knowledge, perceptions, and attitude towards people with substance misuse. We aimed to explore the content and specific themes of Indian online news articles on substance use or persons with substance misuse. We followed an exploratory qualitative design to analyze online news media reports published between July 1 2020 and June 30 2021.

Review of the adaptations in opioid agonist treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Focus on buprenorphine-based treatment.

Background: Availability and access to opioid agonist treatment (OAT) are limited despite its evidence of effectiveness in treating opioid use disorders (OUDs). COVID-19 pandemic has inadvertently exacerbated the problems of restricted access to OAT and, at the same time, has increased odds of harm due to opioid use.

Objectives: We examined (a) adaptations conceived or implemented in the buprenorphine (BPN)-based OAT service delivery at the national, regional, or local level during the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) the impact of such transformations on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of service delivery.

Disulfiram Ethanol Reaction with Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer: An Exploratory Study.

Aims: We conducted a cross-sectional survey to estimate the prevalence and clinical manifestation of disulfiram ethanol reaction (DER) and isopropanol toxicity (IT) in patients with alcohol use disorders, on disulfiram. Alcohol-based hand rub contains either ethanol or isopropanol or both. COVID-19 pandemic has led to wide scale usage of sanitizers.

Can google trends search inform us about the population response and public health impact of abrupt change in alcohol policy? A case study from India during the covid-19 pandemic.

Background: Sudden alcohol prohibition in India during the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to test whether Google Trends data could indicate population responses and the public health impact of alcohol policy. We hypothesized, following prohibition: there would be a significant change in the relative search volumes (RSV) of alcohol-related queries; that temporal analysis of the trends would reflect a public response to policy changes; and that geospatial analysis of RSV would correlate with the prevalence of alcohol use.

Methods: Three different search periods were used to test the hypotheses.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Role of Lamotrigine Augmentation to Anti-Depressant Medication in Winter Depression.

Background: Many therapeutic options have been evaluated and tried for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) including bright light therapy (BLT), anti-depressants, beta-blockers and psychotherapy, but the data supporting use of mood-stabilizing agents is just handful in spite of this condition being understood most frequently to be associated with bipolar affective disorder II (BPAD II). So we planned to study role of Lamotrigine (Mood stabilizing agent) in SAD.

Materials And Methods: 30 patients of SAD who were prescribed lamotrigine in addition to antidepressant medications for a minimum of 8 weeks and were assessed for severity using HAM-D were selected retrospectively from the hospital records for this study.