Saturday 11 / May / 2024
Muscat: Drug addicts are encouraged to approach rehabilitation centres in the Sultanate to get treated rather than delay until it is too late.
Narcotics abuse in the Sultanate is a problem, as it is globally, which can be solved by the individuals themselves taking initiative, as well as with support from their family.
Dr. Amira Raidan, head of the Mental Health Department at the Non-Communicable Diseases Department at the Ministry of Health and a psychiatrist at the Addiction Unit of the Al Massarah Hospital, said morphine is the drug of choice for most abusers as it is cheaper and widely available, but, controlled.
New trend
Drug users resort to morphine due to heroin and hash’s expensive nature, as well as khat—a Yemeni herbal drug—which is setting a new trend in narcotics abuse in some parts of the Sultanate.
Access to the hospital is easily available for individuals who want to make an appointment for rehab.
The rehab programme would take three weeks to two months depending on the extent of the addiction.
“We would interview the patient alone first to understand what he is going through when using the drug, then we would interview the family alone, to understand the patient’s behaviour at home as a result of drug abuse,” explained Raidan.
“The patient usually has to give urine and blood samples to see if he has hepatitis, HIV, STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and other factors, which could be caused by drug abuse,” she said, adding that after that admission to the programme is offered.
A detoxification process takes place five days after admission, where doctors are extremely careful about the treatment process.
“The patients would be in pain during this process, but we are very careful in the pills we give them.
“We give them a controlled amount of pills to ease their pain and offer them methadone, along with paracetamol (painkillers) for joint pains, anti-loose motion tablets and an antiemetic for vomiting. We don’t give them any stronger pills,” said Raidan.
“The two biggest problems our patients have are insomnia and loss of appetite,” she added.
The rehab process takes 21 days to two months to complete, where psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapist, nutritionists and nurses, who form a multi-disciplinary team, including a medical team for issues, such as bleeding, heart attacks or hypertension among others.
Aftercare houses
“Apart from forming the multi-disciplinary team: there are programmes, including exercise, ritual habits (praying), NA meetings, individual sessions, group therapy, physiotherapy, as well as the 12-step programme conducted in the aftercare houses.”
After the rehabilitation is over, patients are offered to stay in half way houses (aftercare rehabilitation) for six months to two years where they live in villas in a protected environment, a resort to say the least, where they will take on activities and new hobbies to get their minds off drugs.
“They will also get some vocational training in handicraft skills that can support them in their future careers, if they want to work in carpentry, designing and crafting,” said Raidan.
“This is not just to learn hobbies, but to also learn new strategies to prevent relapses and learning to appreciate family life and learning new skills that can help them in the future in terms of work.”
Most patients are male, but according to Raidan, they get no more than 10 cases per year of female addicts.
“The treatment is available for both Omanis and expatriates, but we rarely see expatriates because they usually prefer to go back home,” noted Raidan, adding that treatment for nationals is free of charge.
