Anti-depressants easily available

Hyderabad, Jan 2016: Indian American psychiatrist Dr Nagareddy Narendra Kumar Reddy may have been dubbed 'Dr Death' for allegedly prescribing overdose of benzodiazepines to his patients in USA, but back home several anti-depressant drugs are easily available off the shelf.

Senior psychiatrists point out that benzodiazepines, which are prescribed for depression, sleeplessness, schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, are largely abused by unscrupulous elements in AP and Telangana. As these drugs are freely available despite stringent prescription norms, many patients end up consuming higher doses leading to addiction. There have been several instances of people popping up an overdose of benzodiazepines to commit suicide.

Dr Narendra, who graduated from Kurnool Medical College in 1981, has been charged with prescribing an overdose of opiates and benzodiazepines. Though the drug control authorities in AP and Telangana succeeded in restricting the availability of opiates to the general public, they could not restrict the sale of benzodiazepines.

"Opiates should be prescribed only by cancer specialists. Psychiatrists are barred from giving opiates to their patients. A prescription for benzodiazepines is valid only for the number of days a psychiatrist recommends the drug use. For instance, if a psychiatrist prescribes an anti-depressant drug for 14 days, the prescription expires once the medicine is issued to the patient or on the 15th day, whichever is earlier. The same prescription cannot be used to buy medicines again. The patient needs to bring a new prescription next time. But this rule is not followed properly ," says psychiatrist Dr Minhaz Nasirabadi.The Times of India