Mental health patients across north Kashmir suffer as pharmacies deny medicines to them

Baramulla: Despite the burden of mental disorders, patients with mental illness across north Kashmir are going through another traumatic experience of the non-availability of essential psychotropic medicines at pharmacies.

Shaista (name changed) was recently diagnosed with anxiety disorder after she experienced sudden palpitation, panic attacks, and numbness in her hands and arms. The doctors at Government Medical College Baramulla prescribed her an anti-anxiety disorder drug ‘Ezolent’.

   

However, despite visiting all the drug stores in Baramulla, she has been unable to get the medicine, and as a result, her mental illness has been further aggravated.

Like Shaista, Arif Hussain, another patient sharing his agony, said that he was recently prescribed ‘Oleanz Plus’ medicine for depression-related issues by the doctors at the Department of Psychiatry GMC Baramulla.

After failing to get the medicine here for four consecutive days, she brought the medicine from a medical shop on a doctor’s prescription in Srinagar.

“All the drug stores justify their action of not keeping psychotropic medicines to what they call flustering guidelines issued by the drug controller office,” said Muhammad Sultan, father of Shaista. “The issue needs to be addressed at the earliest so that patients don’t go through painful experiences,” added Muhammad Sultan.

The owner of a known medical retail shop in Baramulla town said that most of the drug stores prefer not to sell psychotropic medicines owing to “flustering” guidelines issued by the drug controller office.

He said as per the guidelines issued by the drug controller, a drug shop owner has to keep a record of selling psychotropic medicines available besides CCTV footage available so that its misuse is stopped. However, as a chemist, “I prefer to avoid selling such medicines in view of strict guidelines issued by the drug control office.”

The drug controller office in a bid to stop the misuse of psychotropic drugs has issued renewed directions which “include the installation of full HD CCTV cameras with 1080p resolution with a backup storage capacity of at least six months and designation of all sale/purchase records in a computerized manner.”

These measures are intended to curb drug abuse. However, most of the medical shops in order to escape from accountability across north Kashmir prefer not to sell psychotropic medicines causing immense pain and agony to genuine mental health patients.

The mental health issue has of late emerged as a major issue across Jammu and Kashmir. The UT administration set up a Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking cell at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Srinagar (IMHANS) in November.

As per official figures, the cell has received over 4000 distress calls, in just four months with people complaining of sadness, anxiety, stress-related issues, suicide-related intention, palpitation-related issues, sleep disturbances hopelessness, guilt, and worthlessness.

 Assistant Controller Drugs Baramulla, Reema Ghazala, said that the medical shops can not deny psychotropic drugs to a patient. She said although she has not received any complaint, she will seriously look into the matter.

“The guidelines issued for the sale of psychotropic drugs are meant to stop its misuse. However, at the same time, chemists can not stop selling such drugs merely due to the renewed guidelines. I will look into the matter and if any chemist is found denying such medicine to genuine patients, he or she will be punished,” she said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

5 × 2 =