European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE AND MANAGEMENT OF ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE IN PATIENTS ATTENDING A DEADDICTION CENTRE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Veena Nayak, Bharti Chogtu, Manjunath Shetty, Preveen Kumar, Manohar R, Virupaksha Devaramane, P V Bhandary

ABSTRACT

Alcoholism is one of the leading cause of mortality all over the world, more so in the developing countries. The use of drugs to treat alcoholism are not free of adverse effects, which further worsens the compliance to therapy. This study was done to study the sociodemographic profile of alcoholics, drugs used to treat alcohol withdrawal and management of alcohol dependence in a private hospital in south India. Forty patients who were willing to abstain from alcohol were included in the study. The demographic data, drugs used for management of withdrawal symptoms, treatment of alcohol dependence and adverse effects of disulfiram were also recorded. Disulfiram being the widely used anticraving agent for treatment of alcoholism, awareness of the adverse effects of disulfiram among physicians would help in follow up of patients and early detection of side effects hence prevent treatment dropouts due to poor compliance.

Keywords: alcoholism, disulfiram, sociodemographic profile, deaddiction.